Recovery
by AlexLoneWolf
Summary: When faced with excruciating circumstances, who do we turn to? Are we brave enough to face it alone? Or is facing such things alone really considered bravery? One thing for certain is that all we really want in the end is to feel like ourselves again. And whether it's loved ones, priceless memories, or tangible notes of an instrument, we desperately seek recovery. (Relies on ANH)
1. What Friends Are For

I awoke with a cold sweat. Under the covers, I could feel my hooves shaking. The feeling I was greeted with was absolutely dreadful. I felt deeply anxious with depression tagging along. I was definitely not in a state to try to get back to sleep. I could tell it was still late into the night, and I was stuck feeling a feeling that something absolutely awful was going to happen.

To try to get my mind off it, I raced over to the bathroom, accidentally making some loud noises in the silence of the room on my way. I tried to close the door as quietly as I could, but my shaking hooves made that hard to happen. Nevertheless, I hurried to the shower and turned the knob. A stream of more than average pressured water shot out.

As I entered into the tub, I immediately felt shivers all around. The water was freezing. But I remained there and took it until it warmed up. I didn't even know what I was trying to do at that point. It took me a while to remember I was trying to get my mind off of what was bugging me. Even though I forced myself to not think about it, it still remained strictly attached to my mind. It was almost kind of like a leech that was glued right on my mind.

Either way, I wasn't sure if the shower made it worse. I began feeling heavily emotional as I stared at the wall across the shower. I felt my energy slowly fade away as I slid towards the side of the bathtub. There, I rested my forelegs and buried my head in them. Remembering the partially loud sound of the running water, I felt myself begin to sob.

Did it still really bug me so much? It did… I just couldn't get it out of my head. How was I supposed to forget the sight of it? How could I forget and ignore something like _that_. Even though I shouldn't have, I continued thinking into it. And the more I thought about it, the more it affected me. I couldn't stop crying in the shower, and I even wanted all these stinging emotions to stop. But I just felt so alone and cold. I needed someone...someone to help me through this…

"Mind if I join you…?" I heard nearby. I was sort of startled, but the dismay of my thoughts covered the expression of that surprise. I looked up and noticed the source of the voice was Twilight. She was standing there in front of me looking completely worried. I supposed I had woken her up with all the loud noises I caused. Nevertheless, she was exactly what I wanted…what I needed. I looked back at my resting forelegs, breaking our eye contact. I answered with a shaking head, notifying her that her company didn't bother me.

Without saying another word, she cautiously stepped to the bathtub. As soon as she got in, her mane and tail immediately became drenched. The sight of this unfortunately made me feel worse, as if I began feeling fault for little things that probably weren't even a big deal. I felt my head fall back inside my forelegs as the emotions kicked into effect once again.

However, I began feeling a small warmth of hope inside me when I felt Twilight's coat press against me. I wasn't sure if she knew what exactly my issue was, but it sure seemed like she completely understood. Under the running warm water, she brought me her warmth as she kept direct contact with her body in comfort. The running water began feeling like outside rain. And as she remained comforting me by my side, I felt myself secretly hoping for her to save me.

* * *

Tomorrow didn't feel any different. In fact, as soon as I woke up, it felt as if there were chains wrapped around me along with a weight to keep me still. The intervention last night comforted me, but it wasn't anything close to a cure. In the morning, she seemed to notice my behavior that even I knew clearly stood out.

She had asked me how I was doing, but I couldn't give a straight reply. Hardly changing the expression on my face, I responded with a modest short mumble. Seeming to not know what exactly to follow up with, she then asked if Spirit had come around to see me, but I couldn't really think and answer to that either. Why did I suddenly feel…unconcerned of others? I answered with a short and a bit stiff "no" to Twilight. I hadn't seen her at all, especially ever since I started feeling this way. And for some reason…it didn't seem to bother me as it should had.

* * *

I swear, the majority of the day seemed…uninteresting. I mean, things like…walking outside in town. It was weird but…somehow familiar at the same time. Everything seemed to have turned…monotone. There could have been a big parade in the middle of town and I would have just easily walked by it like nothing. And this didn't bug me. It almost felt…normal to me.

Referring to what I meant to by "interesting things", nothing big happened until I was having tea at Fluttershy's. I'm not even counting to how I greeted her when I arrived at her cottage. She had tried to show her affection by at the least embracing me, but I didn't return the favor the slightest. I stood there and took it, but it was more like I was just waiting for it to be over with.

This wasn't me. But why did I still not notice it? Fluttershy sure did.

"What's the matter?" She asked as she pulled away and looked at me with uneasy eyes.

"Just tired…" I answered, not even making eye contact with her as I mentioned in a restless and bored tone.

I'm sure she thought having her tea would brightened up my spirits, but even I, at the time, seemed to know that wouldn't be so, despite having no thoughts.

I still hardly made contact as we sat across each other with two small cups and a tea kettle sitting between us. I vaguely remember her saying something about her day and Angel as she poured the two of us a cup of tea, but I continued staring at the table cloth the materials rested on. Usually, I would be lost in thought while unintentionally staring so intently at some random thing. But this time, I had nothing to think. I just felt…like a zombie to put it in the best way.

Sure, Fluttershy was probably concerned the whole time, but she was probably waiting to see a reaction when I finally took a sip from the cup that laid in front of me. But I never did. I continued staring off in my perception of a long distance while I was stranded in the ghost-town of the mind I wore.

I could hear faint words from Fluttershy, but I never really paid attention to them. All of a sudden, for some strange reason my mood almost violently swung. I suddenly felt a strong urge to be angry. My hooves raised on their own and slammed against the table.

Everything fell silent in a flash. Ironically, this silence brought me to reality for the time being. The pictured presented clearly in front of me was Fluttershy's shocked face. Her pupils had dilated as she held the both of her hooves to her mouth. Most of the top portion of the tea from my cup had spilt out due to the violent vibration I caused. Resulting from another mood swing, I rested my head on my hoof and felt deeply ashamed.

"I'm sorry." I apologized, feeling as if I had just ruined a life.

Fluttershy was able to recover from her shock and tried to carefully hold out a hoof to help, but I soon began slipping away from reality again and the mental picture I saw was the depths of an endless ocean.

Fluttershy then seemed to take me on a journey that I didn't want to participate in. Once she was absolutely sure I wasn't right, she started by taking me to Sugarcube Corner. Once there, Pinkie Pie got a scoop of the news and quickly offered me sweets.

I wasn't interested in them. Another scenario almost practically ensued just like with Fluttershy and her tea. While Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie tried chugging up ideas on what to do, I remained at the table staring out the window with my hoof to my lifeless cheek.

I could see the two taking glances at me from the corner of my eye, but they were the least of my thoughts if anything. I still find it funny now. At such times, I felt as if I had something completely stressful or intensive to think about, but I really didn't have anything. I just stared blankly without purpose. And I still hardly cared about what others thought of me, whether if it was for the good or bad.

Pinkie Pie even decided to bring herself over to me in my point of view and hold up a cake. She was saying words, but they seemed to fade right through me. It wasn't that I wasn't listening. It was just…well…I heard them and paid them no more mind.

The next thing I remember was her stuffing her face into the cake forcefully and pulling it back out to reveal the facial she received from it. As pieces of frosting and filling fell from her face back onto the cake, I only stared blankly at her and seemed more interested at my absent thoughts.

I didn't know what they thought, but they probably felt they'd have more luck with someone more…energetic and powerful? They took me to Rainbow Dash, who worked athletics into the equation. However, as obvious as it was, it wasn't a good mixture to me. I was already deprived of any energy to participate in society.

Either way, she actually ended up having the generosity to purposely "accidentally" lose to some sporty games for me. If I wasn't how I was, I'd most likely be surprised at her behavior…but maybe it was because she really didn't like seeing me like that…

For one instance, she gripped my lifeless hoof and held it up on a hard surface. She started her countdown without any notification of preparation from me and began her pretend work. She acted as if she was having a hard time keeping my hoof from defeating hers when I really wasn't doing anything at all. When she allowed my hoof to "win", she proceeded to try to encourage positivity from me. As much as their and especially her behavior should be appreciated, it was all unfortunately just a waste of time for me. I admit it. I felt no progress whatsoever.

When it came to Rarity, she seemed to feel an optimistic yearning for the spa. She led me to bath where she worked on lathering up my mane and such and just wanting to me relax. I suppose she believed I was stressed or worked up about something big, but I just don't know…

* * *

"I think I was still able to feel it. I believe I was able to feel their love wanting to comfort me. But I rejected it… I didn't know why. I just didn't feel the same. And it was around that time that you came for me. That you wanted this…'appointment' with me."

"I see…" Twilight answered as she scribbled onto her clipboard. It seemed she physically prepared herself for this "session" as she had wrapped the back part of her mane into a bun and wore glasses that resembled Rarity's but ran a different color. "I guess that explains why they were so eager to stay with you when I came to get you." Twilight tried smiling a bit humorously in order to get one back from me. However, it seemed she finally understood how hard it was for the others in the first place when my expression didn't change an inch. She gave up on her smile and sighed a bit. Using her magic, she gently removed the glasses from her face and brought it to the table near her along with her clipboard and pencil. "You know… You and I don't exactly see it right now…but…I think I have a good idea why this is happening. Why all this suddenly came upon you." I lightly raised an eyebrow. "When I was at Canterlot this morning… I decided to visit the Princesses because I was worried about you. But then I overheard them talking about you to my surprise. They think…" She paused, as if the next thing she was about to say was going to be hard to swallow for the both of us. "They think…the passing of…you know who…was too much for you."

My eyes wanted to widen, but they only seemed to scrunch together a little as I stared downwards.

"They know you've never really done something like that before, and for it to be your own…" She coughed lightly, obviously revealing the hardship with bringing up references that would hurt me. "They were…deeply concerned about you. They were even considering hiring specialists to talk to you about it…but I volunteered."

"…volunteered…?" I asked.

"Yes." She leaned from her seat towards me. "What better way to help you manage than to get this help directly from your closest friend?" She laid a hoof on mine. "We already know each other so much. We can skip the introductions and just get straight to the problem. From what you've told me, it seems you yourself don't even know what's going on with you. But I believe that this entire tragedy you just had to go through recently is the issue, because none of this has happened until now… I mean…not before we all grew acquainted at least…"

"So…" I responded. "You say the reason why I'm like this is because of my dad, huh…?" I seemed to be able to say it a lot easier than Twilight was able to. I scoffed a bit. "Do I even have a reason to feel like this? I hardly even knew him. Why should I be feeling like such a stick in the mud for someone I hardly even knew?" Before I knew it, I could feel my anger rise. "What I only knew about him the entire time I was aware was that he was some evil psychopath! Why should I be so down about that?!"

"That's exactly it, isn't it?" Twilight seemed to understand easily.

"What?" I asked.

"You never really knew him. That's why you're so angry right now." She explained, causing me to think back as I threw my eyes away from Twilight. "And the reason you're so sad…is because you had to extinguish the only chance you had to actually get to know him."

I remained silent. I believed I was just given the answer to something that seemed to make more sense if I knew myself. It felt like I didn't even need to think about it. As soon as she said that, it felt like it just clicked.

"…do you…really think that?" I asked.

"It seems like it makes the most sense." Twilight responded while resting her chin on her hoof. "Unless…there's something else we don't know about…"

I turned my head down and thought silently about it. "You're probably right…" I almost shamefully admitted, as if it was really all my fault and that I should feel bad for it. "I still…don't really understand, but you're probably right. You're smarter than me after all. Maybe I'm just being a kid. Maybe I'm just throwing an immature tantrum because of my daddy issues. You know? Having to have lived with a bad one almost my whole life, even when I found out about my real one. The only time I found that I could have a _real_ connection with my dad, the _one_ time, was pretty much when I saw him leave before my eyes. It's not fair. Why did I have to go through that? Why not let him leave a bad guy so I wouldn't have to feel this way?" I turned to Twilight, beginning to feel sick about my words. "…am I selfish for saying that?"

Twilight found it hard to answer that. "…you're going through a lot right now… I can't tell you if it's selfish or not… But…I believe I remember you saying at one point in time that 'everything happens for a reason', right?"

"I say a lot of things that I can't even believe myself…" I confessed.

"You just find it hard to believe in when you're in pressure." Twilight advised. "A good way to probably describe it is forgetting something important when you're between a rock and hard place. It's natural. No one is perfect. No one."

"Hm." I only returned.

Twilight managed to smile lightly. "Maybe we should take a little break. After all, there's so many ponies that have been wanting to know how you're doing."

"Huh?" I questioned.

We had been stuck in a fairly small, quiet, and most likely sound-proof room. Outside led to the main area of the castle where must have been the location where the others have been waiting. Twilight stood up and walked to the door. As she opened it, she received a fair surprise. It seemed somepony she did not expect to see, at least right out the door, had been waiting both calmly but impatiently at the same time.

"Oh, hello, Twilight. I was wondering…if I might be able to…see him for a while?"

"We kind of just started having a break…" Twilight mentioned.

"I don't want to put any pressure on him." The voice assured. "In fact, I think I might be beneficial to his break…if you'll let me."

Twilight remained quiet for a moment before I saw her turn towards me at the door. "Are you alright with a visitor at the moment?"

"Yeah, I guess…" I answered, sounding possibly like I could care less.

Twilight nodded and motioned her head towards the room, allowing this "visitor" inside. I wasn't sure if it was because of my mental state, but it wasn't much of a surprise when I saw that it was Octavia. She was equipped with what appeared to be two cases for the same instrument. She was allowed to carry them as if they were saddlebags, due to their similar design.

"Hello, Alex." She offered a small but uncertain smile.

Twilight seemed to smile a bit as well, probably thinking that Octavia will be a step towards progress. "I'll be back." Afterwards, she walked out and gently shut the door.

Octavia watched the door closed and then almost hesitantly looked back at me.

"Octavia? What are you doing here?" I asked, despite showing no real interest to knowing the answer to that question.

Octavia kept her composure, but I somehow sensed that she might have been hurt by that statement somehow. Nevertheless, she seemed real subtle about that. "If I'm not mistaken, I believe that's the first time you greeted me by that name instead of 'Tavi' ever since we both called each other friends…" She chuckled a little, as if to make it humorous and opposite of what she felt. I didn't laugh with her, so it created a sort of awkward silence which she had to correct by getting to the point of her visit. "You know…" She began sadly. "I…I saw you in town today. I tried to call you and say hi…but you didn't bother looking my way." She walked towards me and brought down the cases she brought to the floor. "I was a little hurt…but then I heard what had been going on and…I got the short story about what recently happened with you." She began talking as she prepared the items she had brought in. "I can't imagine having to go through something like that." She shook her head in emphasis and then stared at what laid inside her cases. "I'm not sure if this'll help…but I wanted to show you something I do when I'm feeling…down…" She pulled out a violin that I seemed to have seen her have not too long ago. "Do you understand how powerful music can be, Alex?" She asked.

"…Y-yeah, I guess." I wasn't sure how to answer. Even though I was unsure about anything with myself, I didn't really know much about music. Wait a minute…what am I saying? Did I already forget? All those times we all sang together? Jeez…it's like how I used to be all over again…

"When words fail to come out…" She began positioning herself to play the violin. "And movements are all you can do to keep yourself from breaking down…" She attached her bow to her strings and began to play a soft yet strong note. "You play." She answered briefly as she stared straight at me with not glaring or stern eyes, but empathetic ones.

"…play…?" I questioned a little ignorantly.

"Concentrate on your feelings." She advised as she had placed down her violin to pick up the other one she brought from the case. "When you feel them swell up inside you…" She pushed the delicate set of objects towards me and even took the liberty of setting it up for me. "You connect those emotions through your body to your instrument and just play. Don't think about what you want to play. Don't think at all. Just play. Anything. Your emotions will take over for you. And soon, you'll realize how much of the pain you've expressed out from inside you. Try it."

As I held the prepared violin she generously set for me, I felt a very strong doubt of playing. "But…" I released a short grunt of disbelief. "You know I can't play…"

"What did I say?" She almost angrily reminded. "Don't think. Just play."

I released a drawn out sigh and decided to do it anyway. Of course, I let out a screeching note. I already began feeling frustrated. "See?" I said, feeling like I just wanted to drop the violin to the ground. But Octavia didn't care. She didn't care about how it sounded. She seemed to want progress.

"No. Keep going." She pursued.

Feeling anger rise, I clenched my hoof on the neck and began to play once more. However, knowing she'd still want me to play after just one note, I continued even after hearing terrible notes. In fact, having to deal with these notes caused me to play as if I was trying to tear apart every string on the violin. I was surprised it lasted. After I felt almost breathless from that expression of frustration, I lowered the violin and took a look at it. Then, I began to think over what I had just done. I immediately felt guilty. I mean…I was sort of relieved that I hadn't ruined the violin, but the fact that I could have actually done that bothered me. "I'm sorry…" I apologized.

"No." She rejected. "That was it. You let out your anger. Your frustration. Maybe not all of it, but at least for the time being. You feel better now, don't you?"

"I don't know… Maybe…" I still didn't know what to think.

She picked up her violin and set it properly with her body. "Let's play together… But follow me. I'll play a note, and then you play it. Then, we'll go on from there."

"…okay…" I decided to agree.

* * *

I had hardly realized how much I had gotten into the sound of playing the violin. It wasn't that I was playing well. In fact, I believed I had been ignoring all the sour notes that came out from mine. At some point, I closed my eyes and just…let my feelings out…I think. It felt somewhat…relieving…and I just lost track of what was going on. It wasn't until one point when I felt myself slowing down, unguided, and opened my eyes. I realized Octavia was sitting in front of me, watching me. In the background, Twilight seemed to be at the door, waiting as if she didn't want to bother me. I actually felt a little embarrassed, but I decided to put the violin back down and not talk about it.

"Better?" Octavia asked.

"…I think so…" I answered softly.

She smiled lightly. She turned back to Twilight and then to me. "I suppose…I should start going now." She began setting back her violin in her case.

Since she was getting ready to leave, I decided to place back the violin I had been using in her other case to give to her. As I closed and locked it, I offered it to her. She oddly stared at for it a moment and didn't accept it for the time being. "What?" I asked.

She grabbed ahold of it, but didn't put it around her to carry. Instead, she placed it by my side. "No…" She mentioned softly. "You keep it."

"But…this is yours…" I pointed out.

"I think you need it more than I do…" She responded. "Besides, I already have this one." She turned her head to the violin she carried. "That…" She looked back at the violin she was apparently giving to me. "…is from me to you. Think of it…as a 'get well' present."

"…I don't know what to say…" I replied, really unable to think much about it.

"You don't have to say anything…" She brought herself closer to me, looking over me briefly. "Just…make sure you feel better very soon, okay?" She requested worriedly. I didn't answer, but I only held my gaze. She sighed after receiving nothing from me and then embraced me. I could feel how tense she was and felt a little bad for not being able to relieve her worries. "Vinyl wishes you well…" She mentioned. "I'll see you soon, okay?" She tightened her grip on me for a moment and then turned away as soon as she brought back her hooves. She quickly walked towards the door and expressed her thanks as she walked past Twilight and left the room.

"Music, huh?" Twilight offered a little light-heartedly. "I didn't really think of that. I was in total counsel mood." She tried to act somewhat humorously again, but now my mind was on the thought of Octavia suddenly giving me one of her most valued possessions. There's no way it was that easy to leave…was it?

"Where were we?" I asked, sparing not a second on the issue at hoof. "Something about my daddy issues right?"

"…if you want to say it like that…" Twilight responded a little hesitant.

"What is it that I really need?" I asked her but mostly myself. "I can't wish for things to change with him… What's done is done. And honestly… there's nothing new I really need…" I narrowed my eyes a bit and stared at Tavi's gift. "You all are there for me…and even though things are hard right now…I think that's enough. Maybe…what I really need is just time…let things fade off on their own."

Twilight seemed surprised at this sudden statement. Nonetheless, she appeared to be somewhat relieved and happy. "Come on, Alex… I'm supposed to be the one giving you the talk here…" She mentioned jokingly.

After thinking for a moment, I looked at her. "If my father…or well…fathers are such a big deal…then maybe I just need to rant…"

"Yes." Twilight agreed. "It does help a lot when you get heavy things off your chest."

"But…a different kind of rant…" I added, surprising her a little once again.

"Huh?" She questioned.

"I've told you girls all about the stupid stuff from the past…but there's still a lot of those who don't have the slightest clue. Especially those closest to me." I scoffed lightly. "Like my mom. She's my mom, and she doesn't even know everything that's happened. Maybe it's time to…stop keeping it a secret. I think I just need to get everything completely off and start new. After something like _that_ …" I referred to the situation with the dad I hardly got to know. "I think it's for the best…and maybe then…maybe…I shouldn't really speak about him again…" I confessed. "…dwelling in the past has always just hurt me…and as much as I respect him, I think he'd agree that I should just let things go…completely."

I heard hooves clacking together in the brief silence. Twilight was sitting there in front of me, almost appearing teary-eyed as if she just saw me graduate school. Soon enough, I found her hugging me in delight. "I'm proud of you, Alex. Looks like you didn't really even need me to find the possible source of recovery for your wound. I think you'll do just fine, just like you said, with time…"

"What are you talking about?" I responded almost in soft anger. "I could never do anything like this on my own… Believe me… If I was on my own… I wouldn't bother even thinking about anything. As much as I don't really like to admit it…I need ponies like you to help me see a reason to keep going…"

Even though it wasn't exactly a thing to be happy about, Twilight's face beamed a little for the thought. "Heh." She briefly laughed with a soft yet bright smile. "Well, I'm glad we can be of service."

When we pulled away, Twilight continued observing me with a hopeful smile. I drifted my eyes towards the ground for what I was about to say next. "Can…can you bring the others in here?"

"You…you want them to come in right now?" Twilight asked, widening her eyes a bit.

"Yeah…I mean…I don't want to be like this anymore. I want to feel better…and the sooner I can get back in touch with you all…the sooner I can…feel…like me." I confided.

"Sure." Twilight nodded her head. "Sure, I understand. I'm all for getting you back on your hooves. That's why I'm here in the first place." She sent me an empathetic grin before she walked out.

As I stood there in silence, I felt my heartbeat increase. I was getting nervous. But why should I? I know all of these ponies close to the heart…but I still can't help but feel…I don't know…embarrassed. Either way, no matter how scared I am, I know they'll help me. Just like…back to that day…

My eyes were almost glued to the doorway. As soon as I heard a group of hooves, my eyes shot back and forth around the room other than the doorway, but I began forcing myself to keep them locked in. Despite my effort, as soon as I first saw the variety of colors almost swarming in, I felt my eyes drop back to the floor. The sound of hooves stopped, indicating all of them were inside. I already felt no one was going to initiate the first word, sentence, or whatever, so I sort of had to gain to courage to do it.

I cleared my throat, letting a little of my nerves reveal themselves. "I…" I tried pacing around a bit to get me going. "I'm sorry…to have you all see…this side of me…again." I felt them continue to watch me walk around the room. As much as I wanted the courage back, I still felt too comforted by the sight of the unjudging floor to look at anything else. "It's…been a really rough time for…well…not only me but all of us." I managed to say. "I just…I just want to say…that I'm sorry." My heart started pumping for what I was about to say next even though I know I've said it tons of times. "I love you all." I forced out, but truly meant it. "I want to get better, I really do…but…" I finally stopped and placed the effort to finally meet their eyes with mine. At that moment, I was suddenly welcomed with a bunch of friendly faces. I remembered the warmth they all embraced me with and I gradually felt a little more comfortable. "If you don't mind in taking the time, I really need you. I know I can't do this on my own."

"That's what we've been out for the whole time, sugarcube." Applejack responded first. "We understand your pain, and we'll always be here to help you."

"Yes, don't ever think you'd have to handle this issue on your own." Rarity confirmed.

"We love you too, Alex." Fluttershy shared with a sweet smile.

"I'm not too good with this mushy stuff, but…" Rainbow Dash added. "Yeah…what she said." Rainbow asserted with Fluttershy.

Pinkie Pie felt the comfort in smiling, possibly after learning that smiling during this kind of time wasn't really taken lightly. "I'll bake anything you want. You name it!" She grinned brightly.

"See?" Twilight referred to the others. "You don't need to isolate yourself from us. In fact, you're stuck with us."

"Ooh! Ooh!" Pinkie hopped up excitedly. "Like caramel on a candy apple!"

Twilight chuckled. "Yeah. Like that."

I weirdly began feeling pretty starved, probably because I was too distracted with stupid stuff. "I guess I am pretty hungry…"

"Perfect!" Pinkie cheered. "We can finally try out the kitchen and dining room in this new castle!"

"Hold on a second." I froze Pinkie just as she was about to dash off in mid-air. "I was talking to Twilight about getting all of this off my chest…"

"What d'ya mean?" Applejack asked a little puzzled.

"I feel like…it's time to stop hiding things from those that probably should know. Either way…I think…it's time I get a fresh start." I inhaled for a longer than usual moment and exhaled it out. "Now that I think of it, I never thought I'd say this…but…can anyone get in touch with Trenderhoof?"

"Ooh!" Rarity's hoof immediately shot up. "I can!"

"Bring him in…" I almost felt like not saying the words at all. "Tell him… Tell him I've got the story he might just have been looking for..."

* * *

It was sunset and hoof in hoof with nightfall. I felt like I needed to be outside, considering the time spent in that one on one session felt almost like forever. I needed a break, especially after…meeting up with him again. It's not that I don't like him or anything... He can just be…a little too much. I was helping bring the firewood for the bonfire I suggested, which was something that suddenly came to mind to positively and possibly even perfectly end the night. Applejack was the only one around as the others went out for supplies to bring. Even though I had offered to help her bring the large rolls of logs to sit down on, she insisted she bring them instead while I brought firewood. I guess she thought I should take it easy since I can effortlessly just group a whole bunch of dead sticks with my magic and bring them in one go.

Applejack had already brought several of the logs, so I decided to place the firewood down in the center and take a seat along with a hefty sigh. Of course, it wasn't long for Applejack to bring the last of the logs. She grunted as she rolled in the last one. "There. All finished."

"You sure are…really strong." I couldn't help but just point out.

"Yeah, thanks." Applejack chuckled lightly, but unexpectedly formed a serious tone in her voice. "But uh…there was…something I wanted to talk to you about."

"What?" I asked with widened eyes.

"Yeah…" She walked over to my side and sat right by me. "It's not something I like talking about. In fact, I never really talk about it at all. But seeing what you've been through and did today…I figured… I should…sort of get this off my chest…for the both of us." I wanted to know what she was talking about, but I didn't want to ask any unnecessary questions. "You see… Well…" She sighed, already showing how hard it was to get to it. "You've…you've probably noticed something…well…off about my family right?"

"Uhm…" I only expressed.

"Let's see…" Applejack thought for a bit. "Okay… Think about who I live with. There's my brother, Big Macintosh. Sister, Applebloom. And Granny Smith. Notice anything…different?"

As I was trying to figure her puzzle, I suddenly came across a clue. "Are you…talking about…" Then a connection clicked between my situation and hers. "Wait…you don't mean…"

"My parents." Applejack finished, giving me this…unique kind of feeling. It was a little…off…because I had _never_ heard Applejack mention anything about her parents. "I…I…lost them…a pretty while back. I've…gone through most of my life without them…even when I was a filly."

"…what happened?" I asked, feeling cautious about asking.

"Dunno…" Applejack removed her hat and stared at it. "They just…disappeared. I can't even remember what went on around the last time I saw them. But as far as I know…they're gone… I wish I didn't have to say this…but I don't think I'll ever be seeing them again."

Honestly, I was curious to get more into this, but I already knew it was too much for Applejack to tell me this. "What about Applebloom…?"

"I don't think she really knows them… I guess…it wasn't as hard for her because of that. But…" Applejack sighed, almost as if she had been holding back emotions. "But…we've got to remember what _is_ important is who we still have. And for one example…I'm glad I have you." Applejack grinned softly to the side.

"Yeah…" I felt a little bummed by her shared story, but I understood what she was trying to tell me. "It's the same way for me… And you're right. What matters now is that we all have each other…"

Applejack continued gracefully grinning at me and then turned her head to the firewood. "Let's get this fire started."

* * *

Even though she included me, she pretty much did the work, considering she's an expert when it comes to that kind of stuff. The others had just returned a little while after the fire was started up. They brought snacks, drinks, and even blankets. I guess we were going to stay a little longer than we thought.

One of the first things we did was roast a marshmallow on a stick. Each one of us had one at the end, but obviously and as expected, Pinkie had them all over.

"I have the graham crackers and the chocolate for those delicious hoof-crafted pastries." Rarity expressed with delight as she held the materials up with her magic.

"Ooh." The rest of them expressed with amazement.

I smiled a little just as I continuously was being reminded of why I loved them in the first place.

"Hey." We heard a familiar voice sound nearby, but it wasn't any pony joined around the fire. I turned around to see Spirit in the sort of dark and outskirt area. "Mind if I join every pony?" She asked. It almost looked and sounded as if she had just woken up or something.

"Of course." Rarity returned, but she was pretty surprised at her sudden appearance.

"Where've you been?" I asked as Spirit picked up one of the sticks with her mouth.

"I've just been…feeling sick." She said after she rested the stick near the bag of marshmallows. She grabbed one from the bag and poked the stick through it.

"Sick?" Fluttershy, whom was sitting beside me this time, asked.

"You know…" Spirit seemed to not want to remind anyone, including herself. "I…uh…Alex and I are sort of…"

"Right…" Rarity understood. "I suppose that's why your name is Spirit, correct?"

"Not exactly…" She returned, walking to the fire. "But…I guess you're right in a way." She was the only one standing as she held her marshmallow to the fire.

"Why don't you take a seat?" Twilight offered and made room for her, since Spike was sitting by her and smaller than the average pony. "Here." She pointed.

Spirit felt a little reluctant, but accepted. She walked over to her and sat down. "Thanks…Twilight…"

Nevertheless, I wanted her to feel appreciated before anything else. "I'm glad you're here, Spirit." I gained her attention. "Honestly…you belong here with us just as much as I do…in more ways than one."

The others decided to follow on and agreed in a sort of group chatter.

I supposed Spirit felt a little embarrassed as she looked down with a hint of red in her cheeks. "Th-thanks…"

I took in a breath and sighed, feeling like I need to share one last thing to everyone here. "I just want to let you all know…that I can't describe how much I appreciate every single one of you. I'm still a little…bothered by what happened…but I feel like I'm making progress to a sort of…new start. I know I'll get through this with your help… After all, you all can really put out some amazing miracles." They looked at each other and chuckled softly, which they couldn't help but realize it was true.

As they were distracted, I suddenly felt something lightly touch me. As I paid attention to this, I realized a dark blue feather landed by me. It wasn't exactly mine, so I looked up and noticed a heartwarming sight. My mother was up there looking back down at me with an earnest smile. She didn't have to say anything for me to get her message.

It was pretty recognizable to see she was there for me too, holding a great part to it all. Even if she couldn't be with me, she'd work to her best to make sure I'm as content as I can be, even if it means spoiling me in my dreams.


	2. Strings of the Heart

I didn't realize how I had started humming that same tune as I brought in the huge cart of books from Tia, but for some reason, it was really catchy. Actually, I wasn't sure if Celestia allowed Twilight to have these books because she felt bad about what happened to the Golden Oak Library, or if was because of the new update to her title. Either way, I was completely sure that Twilight was going to be absolutely astonished to see the amount of books in her library. It was actually a good "house-warming" present since the castle library's shelves were new and bare.

"What's that song you're humming?" Spirit, who was accompanying me, asked. "Not that it's bothering me, but I've been hearing it over and over."

"I don't know." I answered as I stepped in through the giant doors of the library. "It was just stuck in my head after I woke up this morning." I stopped in the center of the room, unhooked myself, and turned to her. "You've ever had a moment like that? Where you wake up one day and something's stuck in your head almost all day?"

"I…don't know?" Spirit answered as if she _really_ didn't know the answer to that. Fair enough. "Either way, I'm glad to see you're doing better. After all, when you're happy, I'm happy. Literally." She released a short giggle.

As I started pushing groups of books from the cart into the shelves, I continued speaking to Spirit. "So, now what?" I asked, ready to follow up. "Now that we know where you come from and stuff, are you ready to break out of your shell?"

"What do you mean?" Spirit formed a look of confusion on her face.

"Well, you were so secretive with me, right?" I explained. "After all, you only talked to me. Besides being… 'invisible' to the others, it seemed you were only interested in me. Now that what happened happened, are you going to open up to the others?"

"Open up…?" Spirit held the same look.

"Well, for short, be friends with them, you know?" I clarified.

"Oh. Yeah, um, I guess." She answered briefly, almost as if she wasn't really too interested in befriending them like I did. But I wasn't sure about that. "But…we can still…hang out, right? Like the times when you and I messed around in that other castle?"

"Oh yeah, sure. Of course." I responded as I was about finished with the books.

"That's good." Spirit appeared sort of relieved. "After all, we can't stray too far from each other."

"Huh?" I looked back as she caught my attention with that statement.

"Well, I mean _you_ can…but…" She tapped her hooves together. "You're kind of like…the 'host', if you get what I mean. Imagine if there's like an imaginary line or leash between us. I hold the collar and you hold the leash. I can't get too far without hurting myself unless I'm close enough to you. It's just the way it is, I guess."

"So…" I stopped finishing up with the books to pay more attention to her for the moment. "…how close do you have to stay by me?"

"Of course, it doesn't matter at all when I'm back inside you." She put out first. "But when I'm outside…I don't exactly have to be _right there_ , but I can't be like at another town." She paused for a moment and cringed when something painful seemed to cross her mind. "Oh man, I can't imagine if we were both at a train station and you got on a train without me knowing. Ughhh! I don't even want to think about the pain I'd feel."

I sort of shared her thoughts on the matter, even though I didn't know what kind of pain she felt. "I guess I have to more careful around those parts now."

"I mean, I could probably still be okay." She mentioned. "If I can return back to you in time. Well…I don't even know." She bumped her head with her hoof and stuck her tongue out. "I'm never been in that situation, so I wouldn't even know if I'd be able to 'return'."

"By 'return', you mean like…send yourself back inside me?" I asked.

"Yeah." She nodded. "It's almost like teleporting but easier since I only have to focus on one place: you. I just wouldn't know if the pain would be too unbearable or if 'returning' is even possible if you're too far." She sighed. "If you don't mind, I guess just be a little more careful around those kind of situations? Please?" She asked of with an earnest smile.

"Don't worry. I'll be careful." I said. "Just…don't pop out without me knowing."

"Heh heh." She chuckled. "You'll know."

I turned back to the shelves and finished with the books. "There. They're not in alphabetical order…but Twilight loves rearranging them anyway."

"You're just lazy." Spirit placed bluntly.

"Yeah, maybe." I didn't really want to deny it if it was true. "Come on, let's go help out the others with the stuff they're moving."

"Okay." Spirit agreed as she followed me out of the library. Before we left, I thought I heard something, but it was too quiet to pay any attention too. It wasn't until Spirit let out a soft and small cry of surprise as she quickly turned around behind her. "Alex. Something's going on with one of the books."

"Huh?" I turned and walked after her to see what she was talking about. I reached her when she stopped to hear that certain sound more clearly. She stared at the book that seemed to glow and shake after falling from the shelf to the floor.

"It's like… vibrating or something…" She noticed the book's actions.

"Why would it be doing that?" I asked as I moved closer to the book. "You're not pranking me, are you?" I quickly turned to her, preparing for any surprises.

"No, no!" She shook her head with eyes widened. "I'm not!"

"Hm…" I turned back to the book and cautiously picked it up with my magic. I opened the book to find it still vibrating. The first pages I found were all letters that seemed to be addressed to Princess Celestia, but I didn't bother going through them as I was too focused on trying to find the source of the vibration and glowing, if there was any. As soon as I got to the middle of the book, there was one entry that glowed once and stopped, along with the vibration. It was as if this entry was very recent.

"What does it say…?" Spirit asked, almost revealing her fear of what the book holds.

"It says…" I began as I squinted my eyes a bit to read what was inside. " _Dear Princess Celestia… I know it's been such a long time since I've spoken to you. There's so much I want to tell you, and so much I want to apologize for, but in all honesty, I'm reaching you because something horrible has happened here in the world through the mirror. Being your former student, I don't know what to do, and I'm actually pretty scared. I'm trying to make…changes…but I'm afraid they'll all be for nothing if this…this evil does something really bad. You see, there's these girls that appeared out of nowhere. At first, I thought they were your average teenage girls, but ever since I talked to them, they've had this strange vibe. I wasn't sure what to think about it until their recent behavior. They practically got everyone here to fight with each other just by singing, especially when Twilight had just gotten everyone together. But there's another thing. My new friends and I weren't affected. It was almost like…we were protected. Anyways, there's too much to explain. I just wanted to let you know this as soon as possible. It looks…like we might have another really big problem on our hands…or…hooves in your world. Please get in touch with Princess Twilight and Prince Alex. They might know just what to do._ " I stopped and stared at the page for a moment. "No way…" I almost mentioned in disbelief with widened eyes. "Is this really…?" I looked down at the signature to find my guesses correct. "It's from…Sunset Shimmer!"

"Sunset Shimmer…" Spirit seemed to try to recall. "I think I remember her…"

"I don't know exactly what's going on…but we need to show this Twilight." I told Spirit as I closed the book and hurried out the door.

Spirit caught up to me when I stopped in front of everypony who appeared to be relaxing in the room of thrones.

Rarity immediately noticed me first. "Is something on your mind, darling?" Her question caught everyone's attention and had them turn to me.

"Twilight, there's something you gotta read." I presented the book they all noticed when I passed it over to Twilight.

"Why?" She asked with a smile on her face. It appeared she didn't get that I wasn't just recommending a book to her. "Found another book I'll absolutely love?" Her smile disappeared and her eyes shot open as soon as she got to the page I bookmarked. As she activated her "one-thousand words per minute" reading speed, the others became intrigued to what she was reading.

"What is it, Twilight?" Fluttershy asked first as they all joined around her.

"It looks like…" She squinted her eyes almost like I did. "…a message to Princess Celestia from…" She paused and her eyes grew once again. "…our friends at Canterlot High!"

"Wha-what?" Rarity questioned in shock. "How is that even possible?"

"I have no idea, but it... looks like they need our help." Twilight shut the book after reading the last of the words and placed it on the table. Without word she stood up and trotted to the library, having us follow after her. Once inside, she quickly scanned through the shelves and picked out a certain book without having to even read the title. "The way Sunset Shimmer described them, I think these new girls sound an awful lot like... the sirens." Twilight ended after placing this new book on the table we all stood around.

"Not the sirens!" Pinkie Pie yelled out horribly before sharing a whisper with Fluttershy. "I don't actually know what that is!"

"The sirens were three beautiful but dangerous creatures who had the power to charm ponies with their music." Twilight explained after having opened the book to a certain page. There was a picture that depicted these sirens, and they definitely didn't look like any kind of pony. "But to maintain this power, they had to feed on the negativity and distrust of others. The more of this negative energy they consumed, the stronger their voices became, and the farther they could spread their dark magic."

"I don't think I like this story very much…" Fluttershy couldn't help but share her fear on the subject.

"It can't be those sirens, can it?" I asked. "I mean, what are they doing in their world if they're supposed to be here in Equestria?"

Twilight proceeded to answer my question by continuing on from the book. "If the sirens had their way, they would have divided and conquered all of Equestria. But a certain Star Swirl the Bearded wasn't having it. Rumor has it he found a way to banish them to another world – one where he believed their magic power would be lost. That world must have been the one where our Canterlot High friends live."

"Hold it." I stopped her. "Why did he think that that world would have them lose their magic power? I mean…if he didn't know, he'd be taking a really large risk…"

"I don't know…" Twilight shook her head with a small frown. "If I could, I'd ask him, but after all, it is a rumor. We don't know what really happened."

"If that rumor is true, Star Swirl must have sent them there ages ago." Applejack brought up. "How come they're just surfacin' now?"

"I don't know that either." Twilight flipped the page. "But if my hunch is right and it _is_ the sirens who have come to Canterlot High, this spell they've cast is just the beginning. Our friends on the other side need us. We have to get back to them." She said as she began walking away.

"I hate to burst your bubble, Twilight, but the connection between their world and Equestria will still be totally cut off for a super long time." Rainbow Dash mentioned, flying in Twilight's direction to stop her.

"Okay, first of all…" Pinkie Pie immediately cut in between them. "…if there was bubble-blowing going on, why wasn't I told about it?!" She took too seriously. "And secondly, if the connection is totally cut off, how was Sunset Shimmer able to get a message to here, where we are?"

Twilight's eyes floated upwards to her cranium until she suddenly gasped in realization. "Pinkie, you're a genius!" She ran off.

"Yeah, I get that a lot." She giggled boastfully. However, she immediately grabbed on to Rainbow Dash and pulled her face-to-face. "Now about those bubbles..."

Before she continued, Twilight already began bringing in all this…science stuff in the center of the room. But the most noticeable thing was the mirror, at least to me. She quickly sorted out everything and connected it in ways I'd never know how. Soon enough, the result of the project looked like nothing I thought it'd be. I was too busy going through her astonishing construction to pay attention to all the specific formulas and details she was explaining about activating the mirror. Honestly, it wasn't like I would have understood it anyway.

"...And the interval between the two points is defined as the square root of the sum of the squares of the separation between the points along three spatial dimensions." She looked back at everypony else with a beaming smile as she finished her lecture.

Of course, every one of them had understandably lost faces besides Pinkie Pie for some reason.

"Say what now?" Spike asked.

"Duh!" Pinkie yelled out as if she completely understood every little thing. "She's gonna take the magic in here…" She pointed towards the book and moved on over to the mirror. "…and put it in there. That'll make the portal open up so that whenever she wants to, she can go from here to there." She began to continuously repeat herself and switch between objects. "There to here. Here to there. Here there! Here there! Here—"

" _We_ get the idea!" Applejack almost yelled out after having had an annoyed look on her face.

Nevertheless, Pinkie returned to her post with her smug smile.

"Now to see if it actually works." Twilight started as she walked towards the machine. From there, she grabbed the book and placed it on top of the mirror. Soon enough, magic began pulling out from the book and to the top of machine. Then, every part began moving around until a large cloud of magic formed above the mirror. All of us waited for the next step, but it seemed to just be frozen there. "…did it…did it work?" Twilight asked.

Everypony looked at each other and shrugged.

I took a close look at the mirror, but the mirror itself didn't seem to change. I mean, it wasn't glowing or anything like it was last time. "I don't…think so…"

"Did I miss something?" Twilight brought her hoof to her chin and thought. "I'm sure I calculated everything and got the materials down…"

Spirit had been staring at the mirror for some time before she finally walked forward without sparing a word. She stopped in front of the mirror and tilted her head. Although, she didn't really look like she was trying to figure out how to work it. Instead, she lifted her hoof and tapped it. Doing so proved that the mirror wasn't activated. She almost had this concerned face before she suddenly had a strange and silly idea.

She closed her eyes and stuck out her tongue towards the mirror.

"Oooh!" Pinkie Pie suddenly cried out after seeing Spirit do that. "Is there something tasty on there?!" She dashed towards her and actually carried her above her back to be in the same spot Spirit was. However, in doing so, Spirit was brought closer to the cloud of magic.

Almost in the kind of way a magnet worked, the cloud was attracted towards Spirit and suddenly electrified her. She could certainly feel the literal shock before that piece of cloud in her was transferred over to the mirror. Soon enough, a vortex formed inside the mirror and finally appeared to be working.

I raced over to Spirit to check on her. "Are you okay?!" I quickly asked.

"Ughh…" She responded a bit disoriented. "Yeah…"

"That was certainly…something…" Twilight commented.

"Don't suppose we could join you this time around?" Applejack asked in curiosity.

"Better not." Twilight advised. "It could make things pretty confusing if Canterlot High all of a sudden had _two_ of all of you." She mentioned, remembering those that stood beyond the mirror.

"But _I_ still get to go, right?" Spike immediately questioned after the rest of them agreed with Twilight's suggestion. "There isn't another one of _me_ at Canterlot High. And you never know if you might need your trusty assistant." He reasoned both confidently and a little fearfully.

Twilight looked at him and nodded clearly. "Mm-hmm."

"Yes!" Spike cried out.

I looked at Spirit and helped her up after she had been sitting down to recover from the shock. "There definitely can't be one of you or even me through the mirror." I gave her a sort of mischievous look. "Considering how complicated we are, it's just not possible.

"Plus, you're stuck with me whether you like it or not. Literally." She smiled brightly with closed eyes.

"Then, it's settled." Twilight stated and looked at the others. "We won't be gone long." She told the others.

The majority of them grouped together to hug Twilight while another portion of them pushed me inside to join the group hug. Pinkie Pie took an extra measure of hugs and smiles before she was finally satisfied.

Twilight looked at me before she stood by Spike and spoke to him. "Ready, Spike?"

Spike cracked his claws, exhaled, and prepared himself in a runner's position. "Ready."

I turned towards Spirit. "Ready?"

"I'm ready when you're ready." She meant in an ambiguous way and smiled.

Twilight looked back at us until Spike started on ahead. Twilight followed while we followed Twilight. The four of us all jumped through that mirror and prepared for the wild ride ahead.

* * *

As we passed through the final light, the first thing we heard was a crowd of cheer.

"They're here!"

"I'm back." Twilight mentioned a little nauseated while rubbing her head.

I saw a hand extend out to us. I looked up to see a familiar face. Before Twilight could see who it really was, she didn't hesitate to grab it. However, noticing and recognizing the face, she quickly retreated it back.

Nevertheless, in hope to keep her heart from breaking, I grabbed it myself and allowed her to help me up. "Sunset Shimmer!" I greeted her. "You look…different."

I suppose she didn't understand my viewpoint since she wasn't in my shoes. "Do I?"

Before moving on, I looked at Twilight who was still sitting on the floor, but I wanted her to be helped by Sunset. After all, it seemed like the first step to sort of…completely settle things out with each other. Sunset Shimmer must have kind of gotten the message to extend her hand out again, so she did. Possibly noticing the change as I did, Twilight decided to accept her hand once seeing a careful large grin on Sunset's face.

"It's just…" I tried to continue before the others rushed in to greet us.

There was one missing. Fluttershy was too busy looking extremely embarrassed, having her hair cover most of the side of her face when looking in my direction. I suppose she still felt a little…anxious.

"I've got some bad news about those new girls." Twilight mentioned seriously once the others finished their greetings.

"Who's your friend?" Sunset Shimmer suddenly mentioned, confusing us.

We looked in the direction she was looking at to notice someone else having a completely rough time getting the hang of things. There was a familiar looking girl trying to get on her two feet and throwing her arms all around her in an attempt to keep balanced. At one point, she tripped over and fell on her two hands.

"Ow…"

I immediately remembered who this was supposed to be. I would have thought she'd be…well…inside me instead of out here.

"Spirit!" I jogged over to the girl wearing a loose but small white shirt, shorter than average shorts, and a fashionable baseball cap to top it off. Pun intended. I grabbed her hands and picked her up from the ground. However, her legs wobbled and she immediately reached for my arms to keep her up.

For a while, Sunset Shimmer observed Spirit for a moment before rubbing her chin with her hand.

Rainbow Dash sort of broke the short silence.

"Okay. I'm pretty sure there's _a lot_ that's happened between us ever since the last time you guys came, so why don't we head over to the Cakes and talk there?"

* * *

Spirit had to stay close to me the whole time for support. Either way, she was learning the ropes around being in her new form and slowly getting used to it as we walked towards that shop near the school. Nearby, I glanced over to Fluttershy, and I was actually pretty surprised she hadn't said a word to me. It was almost as if she was trying not to look at me or even speak to me. She isn't angry or upset with me, is she?

We all gathered around the familiar spot at the shop. I let Spirit have my seat while I remained standing up. She probably needed a break after being on her new two feet.

Mostly noticing Spirit and wondering what she had to do with us, Rarity spoke up about the situation. "Oh, I do hate that you had to return at a time of crisis." She said as Pinkie Pie returned and offered us drinks that we accepted. "There's so much catching up to do!" Rarity took a sip of her tea. "Perhaps you would give us just the slightest bit of gossip from your world?" She asked after taking another glance at Spirit in a curious manner.

"She's got an official title now." Spike, whom was sitting on Fluttershy's lap, began before the two of us could have a chance to speak. He imitated fanfare coming from a horn with the biscuit Fluttershy gave him. "The Princess of Friendship!"

"Wow, that's really impressive." Sunset Shimmer expressed genuinely. "Guess you really _were_ Princess Celestia's prized pupil." She turned towards me. "What about you?"

I've only know the new Sunset Shimmer for a very short while and I could already feel the humbleness that had grew inside her. I honestly felt no need to be suspicious that she might be "faking" it or something. "I kind of got a title too…but to be honest, I don't really care for it."

"They even got their own castle!" Spike added, as if he was proudly showing off two trophies while waving around his biscuit.

"A castle?!" Rarity reached for Twilight in shock and excitement. "You have your own castle?!" She almost screamed out, accidentally spilling some of Twilight's drink onto her. "Eh..." She noticed everybody looking at her and cleared her throat once recomposing herself. "Ooh, uh, lovely." Rarity calmly replaced as she cleaned Twilight's shirt.

"Well, before we get too into things…" I began to say. "Let me introduce you all to someone really important." Spirit raised an eyebrow in sort of confusion as she sipped the drink she was offered while still fumbling a bit with her hands. "This is Spirit." I presented a hand towards her.

"I must say, you look absolutely adorable." Rarity told her after everyone else had greeted her. It seemed she had been waiting to say that when they'd finally been properly introduced. "You simply _must_ be Alex's little sister, are you not?"

"What?!" For some reason, Spirit jumped in the way as if she had been labeled my girlfriend instead. Due to her suddenly standing up from the couch in shock, she accidentally bumped into the table and caused the drinks on there to almost completely spillover had it not been for the others that quickly caught them before it was too late. Spirit realized what she did and quickly sat down, looking embarrassed for almost causing a mess. "I mean… I'm actually… Well…" It seemed she didn't know how to explain the situation between us, so I decided to elaborate for her.

"Well, you can kind of say…she's my Spirit… She's actually the reason why I seem to have this…power of light or whatever you want to call it."

"Ooooh." The others responded in a way as if they understood something they didn't get at first.

"Oh, I see." Rarity continued. "My apologies. I was only wondering if you were his little sister because you very much look to Alex as Sweetie Belle does to me. Sweetie Belle is my little sister." She explained.

"It's fine…" Spirit still seemed to be a little uncomfortable.

"You all are a sure an interesting pair…" Sunset Shimmer couldn't help but mention.

"How have you been?" I asked Sunset.

"Well…I'm getting by…" She didn't exactly answer in a satisfied way.

I suddenly began realizing something that bothered me a little. I suppose it was Spirit, whom had been quiet the entire time unless she was spoken to. I figured she was on her shy side of herself, so I turned to see if I could interact with her. However, I noticed she appeared a little frightened by something. Spirit now had a beverage in her hands, but something stopped her from taking any sip of it. Her eyes were dead locked onto something else. In fact, that "something else" was Pinkie Pie. Spirit appeared to immensely become uncomfortable when Pinkie Pie wouldn't stop staring at her. I suppose since the conversation came to a temporary halt, everyone turned their attention to this little scene.

"Pinkie Pie!" Rarity softly scolded. "Don't you know it's rude to stare?!"

"I can't help it!" She answered without turning her field of vision away. "I've never seen someone's eyes like that!"

Having her eyes talked about, which seemed a more vulnerable area to her, Spirit looked as if she wanted to crawl into a shell.

It seemed the others hadn't actually noticed her eyes until now. Nevertheless, they seemed to have more sense of trying to shift the attention instead of joining the staring.

"C'mon, Pinkie. She's probably really sensitive about that and you're going off and scaring her." Applejack shared.

"It's…It's okay…" Spirit managed to say while keeping her eyes down at her beverage.

Had there been any free space on the couch, I would have stepped in to keep her closer company. After all, she's known me apparently her whole life.

"Anyways!" Twilight spoke up, seeming to work in Spirit's favor. "What's new here? I mean, besides your school becoming the target of dangerous magical creatures from Equestria?"

"Yeah, so, that isn't exactly the _only_ strange thing that's happened since you left." Rainbow Dash pulled out her mobile device and presented it to us, the newcomers. It appeared to be a video of her playing guitar. Oddly, that same kind of magic from last time happened as she was playing. "Pretty sweet, huh? It happens to all of us when we play." She ended by placing her feet on the table and her arms around the top of the chair behind her head.

"Hmm." Twilight placed her drink on the table and prepared to provide her thoughts on the matter. "My crown was returned to Equestria, but some of its magic must have remained here at Canterlot High. Now that we're all back together, we can use that magic on the sirens. Just like when we were able to use it on Sunset Shimmer when she turned into that horrifyingly awful winged monster!" Realizing that Sunset Shimmer was still in the very area we were in, she stopped and looked over with an embarrassed look. "No offense…"

"None taken." She answered in a disgruntled tone, folding her arms in front of her chest and looking away. "I'm used to it."

I guess she's had same experiences with others…

"They'll never even know what hit 'em!" Rainbow stood up and began kicking and punching about until Applejack put an end to it by holding on to her last fist.

"We've got nothin' to worry about now that Twilight's back." Applejack confidently assured.

"Oh, I'm pretty sure _I_ could find something to worry about…" Fluttershy reverted to her insecure side, but quickly grew out of it. "But it won't be the sirens!" She happily addressed.

"The sooner we do this, the better." Twilight suggested. "Any idea where they might be?"

She received only shrugs and shaking heads before Pinkie Pie waltzed her hand to her face and shook it energetically. Before she could proceed, she made sure to finish her drink to the last drop. She gave a hefty sigh of pleasure afterwards. "There's a big party tonight for all the bands who signed up to be in the showcase! That would include them, the Dazzlings." She answered, picking up her straw to finish off the chocolate at the end.

"Looks like we've got a party to crash." Twilight smiled positively as she moved over to clean Pinkie's cheek with the leftover chocolate.

Seeing as she was probably being a bit squished between Twilight and Pinkie, Spirit quickly stood up. In the process, she began wobbling about in unbalance. She seemed to hold herself better than before, but I still handed her a hand to help.

"You okay?" I asked.

"Yeah." She felt a little better being next to me. "I guess I just needed a little space." She looked towards the others. "No offense."

"By all means, darling." Rarity mentioned, proving her mannerisms.

"We should probably get going." Sunset Shimmer advised, hopping off the side of the couch she was sitting on. "As soon as we get rid of those girls, the better I'm sure we'll all feel. Maybe…we can celebrate afterwards." She seemed hesitant or reluctant to say.

"Totally!" Pinkie Pie immediately agreed. "Come on! Come on!" She began hopping off, heading towards the door. "We might still catch them at the school before the party!"

Twilight shared an agreeing look with me before having Spirit and me follow.

* * *

"Sorry for freaking out about the 'sister' thing Rarity mentioned…" Spirit apologized as we made our way. "I guess I'm still a little jumpy about being seen by everyone else…or maybe I'm just a little depressed that I'll never be a sister." She mentioned oddly.

"It's fine." I reassured. "But it's a little weird you mentioned that because…haven't you been inside me the whole time?"

"Hey." She suddenly grew softly irritated. "Just because I wasn't made like the rest of you, doesn't mean that I don't have feelings like you do."

"Sorry…" I slowly backed off verbally. "Actually…now that I think about it…maybe it's my feelings you're feeling. You know, back when I hated feeling like I had no type of sister."

"Yeah, maybe…" She kind of distanced her eyes away.

I was too caught up by her behavior to realize the swords and daggers everybody's glares threw at each other at the gym. It was just like when everybody had their own little groups they kept to the last time we were here, except this time, it was practically hostile.

Pinkie brought the entire group over to the table that served refreshments, attacking the cookies on the big platter. However, the location seemed to allow us to keep a look out for what we were supposed to see while staying at the sidelines.

"Would you like a drink, Spirit?" Rarity extended a cup towards her. "I would offer you some cookies, but it appears Pinkie Pie is currently busy with them."

Pinkie Pie didn't pay no mind. As Rarity mentioned, she was too busy helping herself to the large amount of free sugar in front of her.

"Oh, um. Thanks." Spirit brought her hand to it. Right before she was about to touch it, she stopped and stared at her hand. Her eyes remained on her hand as she confusingly and awkwardly moved her fingers around.

"Pretend it's a claw." I offered anything I could to help.

Spirit managed to open her hand up like a claw and slowly wrapped it around the drink. Then, she appeared to have gotten a grip on it, but it wasn't too solid. Before she could take the first sip, Rarity lightly squealed. "Oh, I just want to pinch your cheeks!"

Spirit didn't know how to respond to Rarity's obsessive behavior over her loveable looks. She could only react in an embarrassed manner as she tried to converse. "Oh…uh…t-thanks?" Rarity only grinned widely in delight before Spirit turned towards me and spoke softly so only I could hear her. "I'm not sure if I still want to be here…"

"I know it's a little…frightening at first…" I tried to offer her words of encouragement. "But you get used to it, trust me."

"If you say so…" She proceeded to drink her beverage like a little girl until we heard the sounds of the gym doors opening behind us. This caused Spirit to look up to see who it was until she unexpectedly reacted in a worse manner. Her eyes widened as her beverage slipped through her fingers and splattered over the floor.

"What?" I asked, turning around to see what terrified her so badly. As I noticed a pair of three girls that seemed to stand out from everyone else, Spirit huddled and hid behind me.

"No way…I can't believe it… It's them…" She mentioned fearfully.

"Them?" I questioned.

"The Dazzlings!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed, pointing them out to us. "Those are the girls we were talking about!"

"The Dazzlings…" I repeated to myself. I know the girls were supposed to be evil and whatnot, but why was Spirit so scared of them? She didn't know about them until a while ago. After all, they didn't even look that terrifying to be honest. The one in the middle had a look that seemed to replace Sunset Shimmer's back when she was still a little…crazy. The one on the left just seemed bored to be here. And the other on the right appeared to be more interested in the party than any diabolical plans.

"What, really?" Twilight walked in, taking a look at the girls herself as they walked further into the gym.

"So what's the plan, Princess?" Rainbow asked, huddling us together.

"Well…" Twilight held her fingers to her chin. "It's simple really. We just do what we did last time and show how our friendship conquers all."

Rainbow Dash squinted her eyes at Twilight for a moment before she shrugged and casually responded. "Alright." Rainbow began walking off, leading the others including Pinkie Pie who struggled to snatch as many cookies as she could for later consumption.

"C…Can I stay here?" Spirit asked, stopping me from joining the others.

"Why? We're going to be together. There's nothing to be afraid of." I said.

"Y-yeah." Spirit began changing the tone of her voice and quickly scanned the table near her. "It's just…I haven't tried the cookies yet. I mean, it's you all that do your whole friendship thing, right? You did it last time without me."

"But, weren't you inside me last time?" I recalled in a question. "You're out here right now. It's you who works the light, isn't it?"

"W-well." Her eyes searched for another excuse. "Either way. You go on ahead. I think it should work anyway if I'm over here." She worked a weird nervous laugh. "Psh. Ha. I'm like what, five feet away from you?"

"Hey…!" I heard from behind me, causing me to look and see Rainbow gesturing me along in a hushed manner. "Come on!"

"Okay, fine." I allowed, seeing as I needed to join them either way. "Just do your thing, okay?"

Plugging a cookie in her mouth, she nodded her head.

As we were closer to these girls, it seemed we were able to hear some part of what they were muttering to each other about.

"Imagine what a tizzy they'll be in by the time the Battle of the Bands starts." I heard the one with the large orange hair say.

"There isn't going to be a Battle of the Bands!" Twilight was quick and confident to start. The rest of the girls, except Fluttershy, looked ready in their positions. "We're gonna make sure of that!" Sunset Shimmer stood on the side and nodded with a self-assured clenched fist. "Alright, let's do this!" Twilight linked hands with one and turned towards me with her other outstretched hand. As I grabbed it, I could only feel super casual about the entire situation as I only had the story of the sirens to go about with these girls. Every other girl in the group looked intentionally determined in erasing the presence of pure evil. When every one of them, including me, linked together, Twilight exclaimed out with all of her heart. " _Friendship is magic!_ "

All of them lurched forward as they expected that impact of magic to shoot out from them, but all I felt was a group of weight pulling my arms forward. Since I was the only one who left my eyes open, I was able to capture the strong sense of silence that ensued afterwards, which was something that clearly was supposed to happen. Those three girls stared at us, I mean, the whole gym stared at us. Feeling nothing happen, I turned over to the refreshment table to meet eyes with Spirit.

Continuing to watch us from the sidelines, she merely stared and came up with a short shrug. I tried gesturing my head my way to see if anything would happen if she was with us, but she refused by shaking her head. I gestured harder, but she only shook harder with closed eyes.

"Uh, weren't there rainbows and lasers and stuff last time?" I heard Rainbow ask softy, preventing my charade with Spirit any longer.

"I don't understand." Twilight responded, beginning to look around worriedly. "We're all together again. Why isn't this working?"

"You, uh... really need to go ahead and do that whole "magic of friendship" thing now." Spike suggested as he climbed out of Twilight's backpack.

"I'm trying, Spike." Twilight answered. "I thought the seven of us standing together against the sirens would bring out the magic we needed to defeat them. That's what happened before."

"Talk about throwing down the gauntlet!" The loud one spoke up again. "This group is obviously serious about winning! A little cocky though, aren't they? Claiming there won't really be a battle. Seems they think they already got this thing all locked up." She seemed to take our behavior as a feisty challenge to this competition they were having.

"Not if the Great and Powerful Trrrrrixie has anything to do with it!" Trixie unsurprisingly had the need to share.

"Whatever, Trixie! We're the best band at CHS!" Another shouted.

"No! The Crusaders are gonna win!" Applebloom stepped in.

As everyone began exchanging angry and even hostile words, the vibe around the room immediately darkened and felt extremely uncomfortable. Back at the refreshment table, I saw Spirit hurriedly walking out as fast as she could while clasping her mouth with her hands and shutting her eyes tightly. Even though she almost tripped with every other step, she managed to escape the suffocating gym. With worry, I sped after her.

She appeared to find her way out of the school and sat on the steps with her hands to her head.

"Hey, are you okay?" I asked, retrieving my hand that was holding the front door after walking out.

"It was…too noisy…" She responded as I sat by her.

"Tell me about it." I agreed as I continued observing her recovering from the scene. The first question that popped in my mind was what I asked afterwards. "Do you know those girls somehow? Or did you have a lucky guess it was those 'sirens' Twilight was talking about?"

"Mghh…" She struggled in thought. "It's…hard…"

As I stared at her with a questioning look, I heard the doors behind us open.

The rest of the girls that stayed behind back at the gym came out, looking…dissatisfied.

"It doesn't make any sense." Twilight mentioned as she walked down the steps and the others took their seats around. I especially noticed Pinkie Pie, whom had the balance to sit on the railing right by me, and Rarity, whom sat with her back against me with her legs crossed. Nevertheless, everyone paid attention to Twilight as she was going over what just happened. "We should have been able to create the spark that would help us break their spell. That's how it worked before."

"But to defeat me, you drew magic from the crown I was wearing." Sunset Shimmer reminded. "I don't have that crown now."

"No, no…" Twilight shook her head in thought. "Didn't it have to do with Alex or something? His light was the key to bringing our magic together…" Twilight stopped and widened her eyes. Then, she immediately turned to Spirit. "Spirit, since you're Alex's light, aren't you supposed to…?"

Spirit suddenly looked away with an uninterested look to her face, as if she was upset. "You all should have been able to do it on your own…"

"Hang on a second." Sunset Shimmer intervened. "The sirens' magic comes from their music. So maybe _you_ have to use the same kind of magic to defeat _them_." She contributed as she looked at each one of us. Spirit didn't offer a response, so it seemed Sunset was brought down because of that. "Or... maybe not."

"No. I think you're onto something." Twilight stated otherwise.

"Really?" Sunset's hopes were brought back up.

"I just remembered something." Twilight explained. "It's when you play music that you transform now, right?"

"Yup. Ears, tails, the whole shebang." Applejack confirmed.

"So maybe the way to use that magic to defeat the sirens is by playing a musical counter-spell!" Twilight slammed her fist into her other hand.

"You mean like a song?" Fluttershy mentioned as she pulled away the bang in front of her eye to the side.

"Uh-huh." Twilight replied. "I can't exactly put together a logical explanation that'll guarantee our success by this method, but the fact that the magic within you all activates when you play, it's a high probability that all of our magic will come to light when we play. And in order to free everyone who's been exposed to the sirens' spell, we'll need them all to hear it."

"Hmmm..." All of them besides Spirit and me thought.

"The band competition!" Rarity suddenly exclaimed after gasping. She took a stand to continue her statement. "That's the next time we can be certain everyone will be in the same place at the same time."

"Guess the Rainbooms _are_ the band to beat." Applejack shared.

"And since there are two more of you with magic, I believe the both of you just became our newest members." Rarity directed to Twilight and me.

In excitement, they gathered closer around us, leading Pinkie Pie to ask a question. "So what do you wanna play? Triangle?" She held out the instrument. "Sousaphone?" She played a sample of a note. Where'd she get that from? "Theremin?" She played a high frequency tone using her hand which was actually pretty disturbing to me. "Soooo magical." She finished as if deeply enchanted by the instrument.

"I might take a little too long to learn how to play something with these." Twilight responded, holding out her hands. "I'll just sing."

"Like, as in, _lead_ singer?" Rainbow was quick to respond. "Cuz that's usually _my_ gig. This being my band and all."

"It's _our_ band!" Applejack was also quick to correct Rainbow Dash. "And, of course, as lead singer." She defended. "She's the one with the magical know-how to help us pull this thing off."

"Okay, yeah, that's cool." Rainbow Dash backed off. "I'll just use this as a chance to hone my already insanely good lead guitar skills."

"It's only temporary." Twilight assured. "And we don't have to win the Battle of the Bands. We just have to perform during the first round of the competition."

"What about Alex?" Sunset Shimmer shifted the spotlight onto me. "What is he going to play?"

As they looked to me for an answer, I turned to the ground to think about it. "Well, I don't really play anything. In fact…I…" As I began to realize what I was saying, I figured that I was actually wrong. There _was_ something I technically had experience with. "Actually… I have tried using the violin a few times… I can't say I'm any good with it though."

"Good enough!" Rainbow slapped my back, causing me to lurch a bit forward both from the impact and surprise. She seemed happy that I wouldn't be taking the guitar position from her. "Let's get to learning that musical counter-spell!"

"Well, that's just it. I don't _know_ any." Twilight disappointed them with that answer. "But I'm sure I could figure out how to _write_ one." She offered as a resolution.

"Totally!" Spike walked around to Twilight's side. "Twilight can write a spell like it's _no_ body's business. That's pretty much how she got to become a princess in Equestria." He reminded her.

"Technically, I helped _finish_ a spell. And there was a little more to it than that, Spike." Twilight revised.

"Yeah, whatever." Spike brushed off with his flipping paw.

"I've got this." Twilight made a fist and grabbed Spike as she headed back towards the school. "C'mon!" She directed mostly towards Spirit and me.

"Where're you goin'?" Applejack asked, stopping Twilight and turning her around.

"Well, last time we were here, we all spent the night in the library." Twilight answered.

"Are you crazy?!" Pinkie rushed over to Twilight and tightly squeezed her, suffocating Spike in between. "We're besties now! Slumber party at my house!" She exclaimed, causing even more excitement for the others.

Strangely, only Spirit and I were still holding not so much of a smile as we observed their anticipation.

"You don't seem interested." I asked her, continuing to hold my head up with my hands on my cheeks.

"Should I be?" She answered with an unchanging face, looking rather backwards towards socializing with the others.

"Just thought you might be since you're the energetic fun type." I mentioned.

"It's not the same." She returned as she turned her head away again.

Not the same? I continued lightly staring at her expression as I thought.

* * *

Once again, it was only Spirit and me that didn't change into comfortable clothing for sleeping. Then again, back in Equestria, we didn't wear clothes when we went to sleep…but it's a different place than back home. Either way, Pinkie Pie lent Twilight some sleepwear that actually looked more appropriate for Spirit. The color and patterns on it looked like something Spirit would wear, but Spirit didn't ask to wear it instead. As a matter of a fact, it looked like she didn't really like being in the room with everyone else. Maybe it was her need of space again.

"You two!" Rarity called us out as I had been staying with Spirit as she sat in the corner of the room. "Come take a selfie with us!" She referred to her and the other two she was with, Fluttershy and Sunset Shimmer.

"What's a… 'selfie'?" I asked, unfamiliar with the term. There was a loud slam that caught my attention elsewhere.

"Hey! I was about to beat you!" Applejack complained to Rainbow Dash.

"I doubt it." Rainbow spun her controller and changed the subject over to Twilight. "So, Twilight, how is that counter-spell comin'?"

Twilight had been too focused and busy writing in a journal the entire time. "Huh?" She returned, not expecting for anyone to speak to her in the state she was in. "Oh, uh, good. Great." She flipped through the pages quickly and hugged the book to her chest. "Thanks for letting me use your notebook, Fluttershy. I really like the song you wrote for the Rainbooms." She told her, whom was admiring the rubber alligator Pinkie had that looked just like Gummy.

"Thanks." She replied modestly and then sighed. "Hopefully one day, we'll get a chance to play it." She spoke under her breath, looking in the direction of Rainbow and Applejack.

As I heard Rainbow Dash messing around with Applejack by taking her controller and putting it out of reach, I turned to Spirit to converse with her. "What do you think is up with Fluttershy? She's hardly said a word to me ever since we got here."

"I don't know." Spirit seemed to be of no help.

"You're a girl. I thought you might have an idea why." I said. She raised an eyebrow and looked at me in almost a scolding manner. "Sorry I asked…"

She sighed and lowered her head as she wrapped her arms around the legs huddled to her chest. "I'm not good with this kind of stuff."

"I understand…" I easily sympathized and decided to remain silent with her.

It wasn't long before a doorbell suddenly rang.

"Pizza's here!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed before the rest of them dashed outside, leaving Twilight, Spirit, and me. I turned to Twilight to see what she was going to do, but she only brought herself to the side of the bed, looked at the notebook she was working on, and sighed. Before I could ask what was up, Pinkie Pie came back upstairs with a pizza slice in her mouth. "Don't you want any pizza?" She asked with a muffled voice.

Twilight returned an enthusiastic smile and nod, allowing Pinkie Pie to leave back downstairs. Twilight turned over to the drawer by the bed, opened it, placed the notebook inside, and shut it. Then, she turned towards the door and began walking out in silence. It seemed like she had some problems of her own to worry about as well. After all, she only technically finished a spell once. I don't think she had much experience writing one out of scratch, so it was probably holding a decent amount of stress over her.

I stood up and prepared to leave the room but not without Spirit coming along first. "You coming?" I asked.

"I kind of feel like staying here…" She remained her sight at the floor.

"Come on." I held a hand towards her. "I don't think you've eaten anything yet."

"I don't really need to eat." She turned her eyes to mine, but was surprised when her stomach suddenly growled and grumbled.

I chuckled a little. "It's probably safe that you do here."

"Okay…" She answered with a little embarrassment and grabbed a hold of my hand to pull her up.

Making our way to the kitchen, I could hear Pinkie Pie excitedly talking with the others over the pizza they shared. "Did you see his eyes?! They were so cool! Does he go to our school?!"

"I don't think so." I saw Rainbow shaking her head. "With those kind of eyes, I'd remember seeing him before if he went to our school."

"Besides, it looked like he was wearing some kind of uniform." Applejack included, holding a slice of pizza. "Must be from that other school in the city."

"Speaking of his eyes, doesn't Spirit have the same kind of eyes? With those two different colors?" Rarity recalled.

"Ughh…!" Spirit looked a bit puffed and steamed as she turned her head away with reddened cheeks. She looked almost angrily disgusted.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"I hate when others talk about my eyes." She clearly answered.

"Hey, do you have a brother here?! Was that him?!" Pinkie Pie suddenly ran up to Spirit and asked her.

"Pinkie, she's not from around here, remember? Even though his and her eyes looked the same, doesn't mean they're related." Applejack mentioned.

"Oooooh!" Pinkie expressed.

On the other hand, Spirit's face puffed up as she lifted her shoulders up in tension. However, she didn't bother saying anything and only turned around to head back into the room. I didn't stop her, as I understood how she felt.

"Hey, guys. Take it easy with the 'two different eyes' talk." I requested as I grabbed a plate and placed a few slices of pizza on there.

"Oh my." Rarity placed her hand in front of her mouth in worry. "Did we upset her with that? I'm so sorry. I didn't know she was sensitive about her eyes."

I guess I didn't really know either.

After I filled up the plate, I walked back upstairs to join Spirit. She was sitting in the same manner and place.

"Why don't you just stay down there with your friends?" She asked, her voice still holding her upset mood.

"You're my friend too." I took a seat next to her and placed the plate in front of us. "I'm not going to leave you on your own. Besides, I know it's kind of hard right now, but they're your friends too."

"Hm." She simply shared and her eyes drifted off to the plate of pizza.

"Hey…" I brought up, wanting to speak with her about something relating to what happened minutes ago.

"Huh?" She turned to me.

"Do I…upset you when I talk to you about your eyes?" I asked.

"…no…" She answered softly.

"Why not me?" I was curious to question about.

"…because you know me." Spirit stared at the pizza with a frown on her face.

"Oh…because you're…inside me?" I tried to clarify.

It appeared she released a silent sigh through her nose. "Sure." She briefly responded.

* * *

By the time the girls were already heading to sleep, Spirit was sort of quick and sneaky to slip by and out of the room. It wasn't hard to guess that the room was already crowded enough, and many of the others would have to sleep on the floor for the night. I decided to follow after Spirit, especially since I didn't want to leave her alone.

Downstairs, I found her sort of curled up on the couch. She hadn't been trying to sleep yet. Instead, her eyes remained opened as they seemed to stare blankly at whatever was across from her. I observed her for a moment in silence before I decided to walk towards her. Since she didn't have her legs outstretched, I took a seat next to her.

"Is there something you want to talk about?" I asked.

Without appearing startled or surprised, she answered after a few seconds of brief silence. "Why do you ask?"

"Well, you haven't been your usual self lately. I'm sure you should have noticed yourself." I told her.

She burrowed her head a little closer to her body. "I guess I don't really pay attention to that kind of stuff."

I took a moment to think about what to say. "Before we came here, you were fine. You were happy and talkative when we were helping with the books in the library. Now…no offense, but you're kind of…mopey…and silent."

"Maybe I've just got a lot on my mind…" She simply said.

"What's that?" I inquired into.

She began readjusting her position on the couch. She moved from a curled ball to sitting sort of timidly next to me. "Alex…" She began. "How do you think I really am?"

"What do you mean?" I questioned with some confusion.

She continued speaking as she stared at the floor near her feet. "You said back at the castle…that I was 'happy' and 'talkative'. Is that how you really see me? Is that who you think I really am? Is that…how you think I really feel inside?"

Feeling my expression change into concern, I answered as honestly as much as I was able to understand her. "Well…yeah. That's how you usually are when we're together."

"I see…" She replied back and remained silent afterwards until her lips opened again. "What would you do…if I wasn't like that? Like…I suddenly just started being how am I right now every time we are together?"

"I'd…try to find out what's bothering you." I began. "Because…there's no way this is the real you." I seemed to surprise her with that comment as she quickly turned her eyes and head to me. "I know I haven't known you for that long…but…I just feel like inside, the real you is happy and optimistic. And the only reason you'd be like this…is because something is getting to you."

"You really think so…?" She asked.

"Yeah." I answered.

"Hm." She closed her eyes and took in a heavy breath, releasing it out slowly. "I guess hearing that…makes me feel a little better…for now."

"Do you still want to talk?" I offered.

"I think I'm okay." She mentioned a little drained. "We should probably get some sleep."

"Are you staying here?"

"Yeah… It's a little too…crowded up there."

"I'll stay here with you then." I confirmed.

"You don't have to." She assured, turning her head away.

Deciding it was unnecessary to verbally give her my answer, I stood up and began to walk away. "I'll go find some blankets then."

"Ah…" She sounded, holding a sort of reaching hand but then quickly withdrew it after she knew I wasn't going to change my mind. "Mm…"

I rummaged around for some sort of closet that would have extra blankets or pillows. I couldn't help but feel a little guilty because I might have been feeling like I was looking around in someplace that didn't belong to me. I suppose the thought that it was Pinkie Pie who was hosting this "party" and knowing Pinkie back home made me feel a little better. Other than that, I felt that finding some things to help us sleep was something Pinkie Pie would totally understand.

As I gathered the amount of blankets and pillows I needed by stacking them together, I heard some movement from kitchen, such as the sound of the refrigerator opening. It made me wonder who could be up this late after the girls had just went to bed. Was it Spirit? I placed the stuff I was carrying onto the nearest flat surface and headed into the direction of the kitchen.

I looked around inside the kitchen, hearing a familiar voice. "Who could possibly need this much whipped cream?"

I turned into the direction of somebody who was holding a can of whipped cream and spreading it out onto her thumb.

"Sunset Shimmer?" I called casually.

Nevertheless, she jumped at the sudden sight of me, accidentally releasing her grip on the can she was holding. "Waah!" The can fell and dealt a pretty loud noise once hitting the floor. But I doubt it was anything to wake the others upstairs. Once she calmed down, she released a relieved sigh and bent over to pick up the can she let slip through her fingers. "Don't scare me like that…"

"Sorry…" I apologized. "I was just curious about who was here. You're up late."

"I could say the same to you." She returned, continuing her consumption of whipped cream. It didn't look like she was too happy. Hm…almost just like Spirit.

"I haven't even really gotten around to sleeping yet. Right now, I was looking for blankets and stuff." I explained.

"Pretty crowded upstairs, huh?" She asked.

"Yeah…" I replied as I observed the rest of her body. It was a bit weird now that I realized it. I had never seen Sunset Shimmer in such a…cozy manner? Her hair was a bit messy and even the top of her sleepwear seemed to be at her shoulder, looking like it might just slide down further. In other words, I never thought I'd see Sunset Shimmer in this kind of calm and relaxed kind of way. I guess it was because of the fact that she was crazy before and seemed to feel the need to look perfect.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" She asked, noticing how I had been sort of staring at her while I was lost in thought. Because of that, she even looked a little embarrassed.

"Sorry." I apologized again, shaking myself out of it. "It's just…You really…look different."

"Because…I'm wearing this?" She directed to her clothes.

"Not just that… It's you. You seem almost like an entirely different person." I stated.

"I get it." She walked towards the counter in the middle kitchen and rested her arms on the top while leaning forward slightly. "You're still used to the whole 'evil demon' part of me from last time. If I could go back and change myself, I would." She sighed heavily and roughly rubbed a part of her face with her clenched fist and palm. "I can never stop thinking about what I did. And everyone except the ones sleeping upstairs won't let it go either. They keep looking at me like I'm a monster. I hate it… I wish I could just start over…" She burrowed her head in her arms and released another heavy sigh. As I remained silent to try to think of a meaningful response for her, she lifted her head and looked at me. "Sorry. I shouldn't be telling you this. I can't expect someone I tried to permanently erase to care about anything I say."

"I care." I joined her at the counter.

She lightly scoffed. "Come on. After everything I did? Especially to you?"

"A sincere apology is good enough for me." I told her. "And look at you. I can really tell you changed for the better. That's what…catches my attention about you so much. In a way, it's a really good surprise about you. I'm glad that out of a lot of others I know, you stopped yourself and turned around quickly as you did. You should be happy because of that."

"Heh." She rubbed her arm a little bashfully. "You know, I probably would be if everyone else wasn't so scared of me."

"I guess you just have to show them that you're really not bad anymore." I said.

"B-but how?" She became a lot more expressive as if the emotions inside her kicked into high gear. "Every time I try to help someone out, or even when I ask if anyone needs help, they just look at me like I'm still trying to ruin their lives! There was this one time in class where this other girl was having a bad day and thought she looked ugly. You know what I did? I told her that I actually thought she looked really pretty. And then out of nowhere, she started tearing up and cried out loud! Everyone turned their heads at me and gave me disgusted looks as if I had just intentionally insulted her. It was so bad and embarrassing that I had to make up an excuse to go to the bathroom and skip the rest of the class!" She sighed and buried her head into her arms again. "I get it… I get that what I did before was bad… I've learned my lesson…but…but it's still like I'm being punished… I would personally tell every single person at the school that I'm sorry…but they won't even let me get near them."

"Maybe you need to be a little slower…" I offered a piece of my mind.

"Huh?" She lifted her head to look at me in question.

"By what you're telling me, it sounds like you're desperate to let everyone know you're not who you were anymore, and I totally understand that. But, I think you need to let everyone know that without going out of your way." I tried to say.

"What do you mean?" She asked for a clearer answer.

"Say you see someone walking down the hallway." I borrowed the can of whipped cream she had by her and spread some of it for myself. "Instead of just walking straight up to them and asking them if they need anything, surprise someone by helping them at the time they really need it. Like if someone was carrying a whole bunch of books in the library, open doors for them. Or if they dropped a few books, pick it up for them and then you could possibly offer to help carry those books. When you go up to someone who's doing fine on their own and ask if they need any help, they'll take one look at you and think that you might be up to something mischievous. _But_ if you surprise them by actually doing the helping when they first see you, they might actually think otherwise. You get what I mean?"

"Y-yeah…" She answered after having had listened to all of that. "Th-that makes sense. I can try that. I just hope it doesn't backfire on me like a lot of things."

"I'm willing to help if I'm with you. After all, seeing that you really want to redeem yourself, I'd love to see everyone else see you for the new you." I shared honestly.

"Thanks…" She responded in a heartfelt manner. "Listen…I don't know or remember if I ever _really_ apologized for what I did to you…but just in case I didn't…I'm really sorry." She held her hands together at her waist and bowed her head down a little as if she was ashamed for her past actions.

I couldn't help but laugh warmly a little as I gently messed with her hair. "I still can't believe how neat and cute you really are under all that attitude."

"What are you saying?!" She raised her head in a fit of embarrassment as her cheeks began to redden. She actually almost looked like Spirit with that kind of reaction.

"That's what everyone else needs to see." I answered. "Then…I'm sure everyone will grow to love you." I smiled almost confidently.

Sunset looked at me for a good while in silence before she looked away with a bowed head. She turned her body back to the counter and rested her arms there. "Hm. Thanks…Alex."

If I did any help, then I was glad that I did. But there were still some things I wanted to know about her, and I hoped she wouldn't mind me asking about those things. "Sunset?" I lightly called her.

"Hm?" She turned her head to me.

"Can I know…why you left Princess Celestia?" I asked almost hesitantly.

"Oh…" It seemed I sort of caught her off-guard. "Wow… That's…that's…quite a lot. Did she…tell you anything about me?"

"If I remember right…" I began to recall. "I think she said something about you being 'cruel and dishonest' when you didn't get what you want."

She sighed heavily. "She got the wrong idea…"

"Wrong idea…?" I grew softly intrigued.

"Where do I start…?" She questioned herself, staring down at the can of whipped cream. "I guess…you can say I bit off more than I could chew in a way…" I allowed her to speak with no interruptions from questions. "You see…back when I was a filly…I was in this stupid talent show kind of thing. I was paired up with somepony else from school, and we really wanted to _wow_ the crowd. We wanted to be…different from the others. We wanted to…really stand out. Show everyone what we were made of. So…we decided to do this song, but not just any kind of song. A song that we could really put our heart into. The other pony I was with was the main singer. I had an important part to play myself. Using my magic that I surprisingly was pretty gifted with, I added a lot of things like fireworks or dancing spinning lights as she sang." She giggled a little as she must have been reminiscing back to the time she was talking about. "Now that I think back to it, it was a lot of fun… And you know what? We really accomplished something. The whole audience seemed to love us for that. We actually got first place. Why? Well… For one, I guess it was because we both had a thing for showing others what we could do…and second…we had a powerful and close friendship." She surprised me at that moment. Questions were lining up at my lips to jump out at Sunset Shimmer, but I forced myself to remain quiet so she could finish her story. "You'd think something like that surely would have made everything all the better…but it didn't. In fact, that's when everything went downhill. I think it was someone important from Canterlot that talked to my parents about me. Apparently, he saw how 'gifted' I was." She used a tone of disgust when referred to that one word. "Just me, since I was the one who used magic back at the show. He convinced them to send me to Canterlot for Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. And being a filly, I didn't have a say." She began releasing hints of anger throughout that statement. "My parents wanted the best for me. They didn't think I had anything special or dear to leave behind. So next thing you know, I'm heading to Canterlot…" Her voice seemed to want to break all of a sudden. Even tears welled up in her eyes. "Just…like that." She used her sleeve to wipe the tears from her eyes. "I won't lie. Princess Celestia was really friendly and nice…but it wasn't enough. It wasn't the same. As I stayed in Canterlot, that's when any idea of friendship disappeared in me. After leaving home, I couldn't make any friends in Canterlot. I isolated myself because I _didn't_ want to make any friends. Not after the one I left behind in the dust. Over time…when I studied with Princess Celestia, I grew angry and bitter. I could never let what happened go. I think…I started feeling like what happened then was everyone's fault…even the Princess. Maybe…maybe I thought she wasn't understanding to what I had to leave behind to study with her. Either way, I knew my body soon began to fill with hatred, and Princess Celestia knew it too. One day…I just broke. I let all the stress, anguish, and anger get to me. Remembering her introduce the mirror to me one time during my studies, I deceived her, took what I needed, and bolted out of there. I ran straight towards the portal, knowing that I knew nothing what was beyond. I guess that made me feel a little safe…feeling that it would be too risky for her to go after me. At the time, I didn't really know what made me just bail out of there and through the portal… I guess it was freedom… I felt like…everyone back at Canterlot was expecting so much of me, and even as I grew up, I still had no say. I couldn't go back home and live the life I used to live anymore. That was gone. And it seemed that no one cared that I had to wake up every day knowing that. But here… Here at Canterlot High, I let it all get to me. I didn't care about how evil I was. People _listened_ to me. People in a way worried about my thoughts and did what I wanted them to do. When I had something to say or an opinion, everyone would listen to me. And I let it get to my head." She sighed heavily. "Over all these years, I've learned so much. I don't think I can ever replace what I had…but at least I can try to contribute and hopefully make a difference in others' lives."

"Wow, Sunset…" I responded with great empathy. "That's…so horrible… I'm sorry…you had to go through all that."

"Yeah…" She merely shrugged. "Well…what can you do?"

I stared at her for a moment. I almost felt guilty that I had kind of thought she was just a bad person. That she wanted to be such a jerk because that's just how she was. Just like…someone else I knew. "Can I…hug you?" I asked.

Sunset Shimmer was pretty stunned for a moment when she heard that right. She looked away and grabbed her arm with the opposite hand, sort of closing off her chest. "…you really want to touch a mess like me?"

"If that was true…I wouldn't have asked you in the first place." I responded honestly, catching her attention. "Things only seem like a mess to you right now…but they'll clear up soon. I know it…"

She lowered her head and closed her eyes. She released her grip on her other arm and opened up her chest. She took in a heavy breath and exhaled. Then, she nodded and spoke. "Okay…" She said as she possibly tried to hold back tears.

As if not wanting to frighten a scared child, I slowly reached out to her. Then, as carefully as I could, I wrapped my arms around her and gave her a soft yet firm embrace. I wanted it to be as meaningful as it could be. Something to show her that she was not alone, nor was she hated. I felt Sunset soon relax her tensed body and slowly bring up her arms. From there, I could feel her hands on me. However, she clenched her fingers into fists, grabbing the back of my shirt tightly. Softly, I could hear sniffles along with damp clothing.

From the time she spent latched onto me in a sad silence, I could feel the warmth from her body. There was something different I noticed about the upright body here in this world. There was a sort of…comfy cushion between the both of us. This not only went for Sunset Shimmer, but during the times I'd hug the others as well in this world. I had to admit…it felt really…good. It kind of…expressed or emphasized a tight bond along with the care and love behind the embrace. And being here with Sunset Shimmer allowed me to think more and observe this difference.

"I can't thank you enough." She managed to say calmly. "You know…I'm really glad you guys came here… If you hadn't…I'd probably still be the same person I hated."

"Well…you were planning to rule Equestria, weren't you?" I lightly joked.

"Ugh…" She groaned. "Please don't bring that up." She mentioned as if she didn't want anything to ruin the moment.

"I know. I was just joking." I returned a bright smile.

I was soon glad to hear Sunset taking it humorously instead of personally when I heard her start to laugh. "Heh heh, hah hah…!" She continued to smile. "…hah…Waaah!" She suddenly screamed out and jumped from me.

"What?" I asked in surprise before I turned noticed another girl that had been behind me.

"Boulder was hungry." She stated in a deadpan tone, holding a small rock and opening a cabinet near her without taking her emotionless eyes off of us. She reached for what looked like a box of crackers and brought it out, shaking the contents outside to her rock. Sunset backed off into the counter, holding her hands together as if she was terribly afraid of this actually harmless girl.

She continued staring blankly at us as she fed her rock more of the crackers inside the box. If I hadn't known who she really was, I'm sure I would have been pretty intimidated by her as well. "Hi, Maud." I took the initiative to say.

Her eyes merely turned my way with no change in expression. "Hi." She said in the same tone. Without even asking if she's met me before or how I knew her name, she turned and walked away from us while continuing to feed her pet rock.

"I still can't get over the fact that she's related to Pinkie Pie." Sunset Shimmer shared in a whisper when Maud was far enough.

"She's really not that bad." I responded, speaking from experience. "Trust me, if you ever get to really know her…she's…a good kind of different."

"Hm." Sunset thought about that. "If you say so. After all, you're the one surrounded by friends." She laughed lightly.

Realizing what we were doing before Maud came into the picture, there was another thing I wanted to ask about. "Sunset…if you don't mind… Do you still remember the friend you had to leave back behind?" If I had an idea of this friend…maybe I could get them to meet each other again… Maybe that's sure to give Sunset Shimmer the confidence she needed!

"Yeah, of course." She replied in a sure manner. "Actually…" She rubbed her head and looked a little away in guilt. "You two saw each other."

As soon as she said that, the grin that had formed on my face froze, but my mind was absolutely puzzled. "Heh?" I met her before?! Well, who was she?!

"I mean…I think it's someone you know fairly well…" She continued to raise the suspense, wanting me to just have her spit it out already. She looked really reluctant, as if she didn't really want to recall her name. "You know…" She rubbed her arm shyly. "It's your sister…Starlight…?"

I didn't move an inch after I heard that name. I only stared back at Sunset Shimmer with the same frozen smile on my face as she slowly flinched back at me. "St…Starlight…?" I weakly said. But it sure didn't stop me from practically exploding in front of her. "WHHHHAAAATTT?!"

"Shhhh!" Sunset quickly covered my mouth with her hand. "You're going to wake the others."

I nodded, allowing her to remove her hand. "Starlight?!" I exclaimed in a hushed tone. "She was the friend you had to leave behind!? You were in Fillydelphia?!"

She nodded with a sort of timid frown. "I can't believe she actually agreed to help me with what I was trying to do before…" She mentioned, recalling last time. "I mean…we hadn't seen each other in ages. I don't even think she knew what had happened. In fact…when I first tracked her and met with her at the end of one of her concerts…she didn't look happy to see me. Not at all…"

"But…did she know who you were?" I inquired about.

"I think so…" Sunset continued. "She didn't ask who I was. But she didn't ask where I had been the whole time either. It's almost like as if…she buried everything that happened between us deep in the ground. Of course, at the time, I didn't care. Not while I was sick to the mind. When we met, we didn't mention anything about our past. It was like as if we knew who we were but at the same time complete strangers. I didn't catch her attention until I explained in detail with what I needed her help for. Getting the…crowns… When she heard that, she decided she would help. I still don't exactly know why, but as she kind of proved before, she wasn't interested with what I was aiming for."

"Oh… I see… So that's why she was with you…" That answered a question that I hadn't really investigated thoroughly about.

"But forget about that…" Sunset mentioned, wishing to change the subject. "Starlight…" She began. "…how is she doing?"

"She's…" I tried to think over how to put it in a brief explanation. "A lot happened between her and me. I mean, I'm sure you know she hated me the last time we all met. I found out about the reason and…well…I guess we finally forgave each other. You know…now that I think about it…maybe… Maybe another big reason she lashed out her frustration at me was because of you. Maybe she felt both angry and confused… If you two were really close and best friends, it's completely understandable for her to be that way."

"I see…" She thought as well. "I'm, I'm sorry." She apologized and sighed. "I don't know if I can make up things with her… After all, I think she hates me now anyway. I treated like our friendship in the past was nothing, and she even threw that sledgehammer at me!"

"Right…" I sort of cringed from imagining how the pain must have felt.

"I can believe her if she never wants to see me again…" She shared gloomily.

"I'm sure that's not the truth." I argued. "If you two really had such a strong friendship, there's no way she'd want to bury you away like that. I'm sure…she still thinks about you."

"…you really think so?" Sunset asked.

"Yeah. In fact…if you really want to try to fix things between you two…I can bring her with me."

Sunset widened her eyes and then looked a little anxious.

"I-I don't know… With what's going on, I don't know if it's a good idea."

"Hm…" I crossed my arms and placed a little thought into it. "Actually…it might just be a good time to bring her. You're looking for support and acceptance. With that, there's no way Starlight would just ignore that. Not after what you two have been through."

"O…okay…" Sunset uncertainly agreed. "I mean…if we only met back when I was such a pain and you've had the heart to forgive me, then…surely an old close friend should have the heart too…right?"

"Right." I reinforced. "There's no way a person will forget another if they're engraved to your heart."

"Okay." She nodded with more confidence. "Alright, I trust you." She inhaled and exhaled a breath as if she was trying to calm her nerves. "When were you planning to bring her?"

"Well…" I thought about that. "I have to get my violin for tomorrow so…I could probably get her then."

"Okay…so…tomorrow…alright." She already looked like she was letting her nerves get the best of her.

"Try to relax." I placed a hand to her shoulder. "Don't want to let it steer you away."

"Okay." She said for the fourth time now as she nodded. "I hope some sleep will help me get through this…though…I don't know if I'll be able to sleep at all now."

"Heh heh." I chuckled a little, seeing as it was practically my fault for bringing all this on her so late. "Sorry."

Sunset Shimmer seemed to notice something behind me as she leaned over to the side to see past me. "Hey, Twilight. You're up late." She greeted.

I turned around to notice Twilight at the doorway looking at each one of us. "I'm sorry. Am I interrupting anything?" She asked as she held the notebook she had been working on close to her chest.

"Not at all." I responded. "What's up?"

"Just looking over the counter-spell." Twilight walked in over to the counter where we were. She looked like she wanted to open the notebook, but she hesitated. "We only get one shot at this. It has to be perfect."

"Oh right." Sunset Shimmer remembered. "I almost forgot about that… Do you need any…" She seemed to stop mid-sentence. She shared a glance at both of us as she paused. "Actually…never mind." She formed a confident smile. Afterwards, she yawned. "I should really head to bed… We've got a really big day tomorrow…" She turned towards me, mostly likely referring to not only the Dazzlings, but Starlight as well. "Good luck with the counter-spell." She told Twilight as she began heading off. "Not that you'll need it. This must be nothing compared with the stuff you're expected to deal with as a princess in Equestria." She mentioned easily while Twilight seemed to fixate a frown when she slightly opened the notebook to view the contents within partially.

"Sunset Shimmer?" Twilight called suddenly, stopping Sunset in her tracks. Twilight looked as if she had something big to say when she opened her mouth, but then she quickly shook her head. "...Never mind. It's not important." Sunset Shimmer gave one last grin before she left the room. "No…I have to be able to do this. I _have_ to." Twilight seemed to tell herself.

"What's wrong?" I decided to find out the subject of the matter myself.

She opened the notebook and stared at it on the counter.

"It seems I may have…" She paused and then sighed. "…nothing. I'm fine."

"It doesn't sound like nothing." I shared.

"It's just…I don't want to keep you up. It's already so late. We can talk about it later." She revealed.

"So what about you?" I questioned. "Are you going to stay up?"

"Yeah… Don't worry about me." She assured as she began to study her scribblings on the notebook. "You know me, after all. I'm used to pulling all-nighters."

"Yeah… I guess you're right there." I agreed. "Well, take it easy okay?"

"Okay." She briefly responded.

"Goodnight."

"Goodnight."

I finally made my way back out of the kitchen.

I grabbed the blankets and pillows I had retrieved and headed towards the couch Spirit and I were crashing on. It was getting there and seeing Spirit that I realized I forgot about her. It appeared she removed her shoes and socks as it was probably more comfy to sleep without them. The hat she wore rested on the table nearby. She was only left with her small loose white shirt and shorts, which seemed comfortable enough in sleeping in. Either way, she had already fallen asleep which had me feeling a little guilty. I must have been in the kitchen with Sunset Shimmer for a pretty long time…

Despite that, I spread out a blanket over her and somewhat tucked her in. I lightly picked up her head to place the pillow underneath and carefully placed her head back down. Afterwards, I made myself comfortable in my own space and thought to myself for a while. In the moment, I found how quiet it was inside the house. It was sort of eerie…but not so much. I suppose it was just the strange feeling of sleeping over in a place you're not too familiar with.


	3. Let's Rock It to the Top

"Hey…hey…" I felt myself being lightly shaken.

I think I mumbled a bit before I opened my eyes and saw Spirit in front of me. "…what?" I asked, still feeling a little half asleep.

"The others went on ahead to Applejack's farm." She answered. "You still need to get your instrument, right?"

"Oh, right…" It took me a while to get my brain started. "Yeah…I need to get back to Ponyville for that…" I rubbed my eyes.

"Let's get going then. We don't want to keep them waiting." Spirit suggested.

"Right… Okay…" I agreed as I proceeded to get up and fold the blankets.

* * *

Back in Ponyville, Spirit and I stopped in the front of my old home.

"Wait right here. I'll be right back." I told her.

"You don't need any help?" She offered.

"No, I've got magic here. I can just carry it with that." I mentioned and then made my way into the house.

I remembered last leaving it in my room somewhere, but I unfortunately couldn't remember where exactly. Nevertheless, it wouldn't take much time. My room wasn't messy, so there were only a few places it could be. I scanned over some empty spaces in my room, but nah, nothing. The violin is supposed to be in a solid protective case, just how I left it last time. Maybe I left it under the bed?

Seeing as there was a good chance since I pretty much looked everywhere else, I knelt down and tried to reach my hoof through.

"I hope I didn't put it too far back…" I softly told myself as I reached. The space under the bed was too small, so I wasn't able to actually illuminate the area underneath and see for myself. However, as soon as I grabbed ahold of something, I took it out to see what it was. Once outside from under the bed, I noticed something odd about it. It appeared to be some sort of clothing and definitely not something I'd have in my room. "What the?" I held it up with magic to get a better look at it. Then, I realized it was a dress. A certain dress I was sure I had seen before. "What is this doing in here?"

"What are you doing?" I suddenly heard another voice, startling me and causing me to drop the dress.

The only pony I'd be able to guess that spoke just now would be Spirit, since she was supposed to be waiting for me outside. Did she get impatient and decide to come in to see what I was doing? But no it was not her at all. It definitely didn't fit her voice anyhow. The sound come from my bed, and there I saw someone I absolutely didn't expect.

Starlight was sitting up from my bed with the bed sheets still hung on her a little. It didn't look like she was too happy to see me. In fact, it looked like I actually had just woken her up.

"Oh, Starlight…" I responded a little nervously. We had just worked things out with each other recently, and I really didn't want to screw things up. "S-sorry… I forgot that you were staying here…" She only responded by sighing and rubbing her eyes. "I'm just looking for my violin and I'll be out of here." I quickly mentioned, hoping that'd cool her down if she was mad as she probably was.

She opened her eyes with a bit of surprise. "That was _your_ violin?" She asked, scaring me a little with the way she put it.

"Um…yeah…?" I answered, wanting more information from her.

"You should have told me. I threw that thing out." She responded casually as if she had not a single bit of guilt or remorse.

"What?!" I exclaimed out loud. "Why?!"

"I tripped over it and got mad. So I threw it out the door. I don't know if it's still out there. If not, someone probably took it." She decided to finally get out of bed.

Was she kidding!? She was talking so calmly. She couldn't have possibly done that!

"Please, please tell me you didn't, Starlight." I'm pretty sure if it was outside, I would have seen it. If not, Spirit would have seen it and told me about it.

" _Sorry._ " She returned in a completely unapologetic tone as she walked past me and headed down the stairs. It was as if she was telling me it was my fault for leaving it wherever I had left it.

Of course, I wasn't going to leave it at that. That violin wasn't just any violin. It was the one that Octavia herself gave to me! There's no way to replace that! I anxiously followed Starlight down the stairs, almost desperately pleading that she was joking. "Starlight! Come on! You have to be lying to me!" I could feel myself complaining in a fit of rage now as she continued to lead me somewhere that I didn't pay attention to. "That violin was important to me! A friend gave it to me as a meaningful gift! You can't just buy it!" Finally she stopped in front of a door under the stairs and opened it. Just as I was about to almost lose it, she suddenly pushed something my way. It was a case…the _violin_ case!

"Next time, don't just leave your things lying around." She told me.

Just to be completely sure, I opened the case and noticed the violin in there. It seemed to be in the same condition just as I remembered it last was. "Wha… It's here…!" I looked up at her for an answer. "Why'd you lie like that?!"

"Because…" She crossed her front legs and looked away. "I really _did_ trip on it… And…" She seemed to soften the tone of her voice with the last of her words. "…you haven't noticed…"

"…haven't…noticed…?" I was confused by those words. Based on experience, when a mare gets into the talk of "noticing" things about her, it's usually about her appearance. An example would be a recent haircut or new accessory. Thinking about that caused me to look at her mane to start off. However, that was all I needed to do because I knew then the difference she must have wanted to show me. "Your hair…!" I realized. "It's…it's not covering your horn…!"

"I decided…to try to make a fresh start." She explained as she grinned lightly. "After I left that new fancy castle you have. And you know what? It might not be such a bad look for me."

"I have to admit…" I decided to share. "I think…you look better like that." I surprised her with that comment. "…but are you self-conscious because you can't…?" I didn't really want to discuss her issue directly like that.

She scoffed. "Who cares if I can't do any magic. I've made it here without it. Even if ponies gossip about it, so what? I shouldn't care about them in the first place."

"If you say so…" I was able to muster up with. I know how hard it was to try to think that way, and it seemed to me that she was trying to be confident about something she wasn't even sure about. However, I was suddenly reminded about where I was taking this violin in the first place. I remembered I told Sunset Shimmer last night on how I would bring Starlight so they could…I don't know…make up with each other? But how was I going to tell her that? Just spit it right out? "Hey… Do you want to know why I was looking for this violin?" I asked.

"You don't need to tell me." She sort of made clear, leaving me to be unable help the hidden exasperated expression that came across my face.

"Well…if I didn't want to tell you…I wouldn't have brought it up in the first place…"

"Then just say it in the first place." She sort of fired back the same attitude.

I give up… "Long story short, there's these three girls messing around by making everyone against each other back at the high school that's through the mirror and Twilight, all of the others, and me are going to play music so we can hopefully and ultimately stop them."

She sort of responded with a look that seemed to question why I bothered unloading all of that to her if she really had nothing to do with it in the first place. "So…why did you want to tell me all that?" She asked as if she didn't really care about the three evil girls.

"Well…" I turned my eyes away, not wanting to push any buttons. "Did you want to come along with me?"

It didn't take her too long to think about it and give her answer. "Not really… I think I'll just stay here." She began walking past me to head up the stairs.

It kind of bothered me that I wasted all that extra time I could have used to get back to the others just to get that kind of answer. No way. I'm already this far in. I'm not going to just drop it. "Sunset Shimmer." I blatantly spat out.

That definitely made her stop. She remained silent for a moment before she turned to me. "What about her?"

I still didn't want to give away that I wanted her to come along to restore the friendship I had found out about. So, I tried focusing on a more…impersonal subject involving Sunset Shimmer. "You see… You two kind of ended on bad terms the last time we were there. You know, with her turning into a whole demon kind of thing. But the thing is, she's changed. She's a _whole_ other pony, person, whatever. _Believe_ me. I guess I just really wanted you to come to see that change yourself." This was actually true. I actually did kind of really want Starlight to see the new and improved Sunset Shimmer. It was almost like wanting to brag to someone close to you about something significant you achieved just because it just made you feel amazing.

"So…you're saying she's…good now?" She asked, turning her body to me now.

"Yeah." I briefly replied.

She turned her head away, now taking the time to think. "I guess…we did kind of end on a 'wanting each other destroyed' note…" She crossed her front legs again and lightly pursed her lips to the side. "I suppose it'd probably be the best if we fixed that."

This was good. Since she didn't know that I learned about the thing between Sunset Shimmer and her, she wasn't so reluctant to leave. If she knew what I was trying to do, she'd probably be as stubborn as a mule and lock herself up in the house. Either way, I think I've taken enough time. Who knows what everyone is doing back through the portal.

"Alright then, let's get going." I stated as I grabbed the violin case with magic and began trotting towards the front door.

"What? So soon?" She sort of trailed behind me.

"Well…I'm kind of on a schedule…" I tried to answer politely.

Starlight merely sighed. "Well…I guess I don't really have anything important here to do anyway…"

I saw Spirit in a sort of impatient manner as she had surprisingly managed to wait throughout that entire time. "What took you so long? I've been waiting forever! We've got hurry before we miss—" She paused and noticed Starlight, whom was messing with her mane, standing behind me. "She's here…?" She muttered softly.

"Yeah, she's coming with us." I answered. "Is that okay?"

Spirit seemed to return a disapproving look. "I guess so."

I suppose Starlight decided to question Spirit when she noticed her. "Are you another one of Alex's friends?" She asked, especially since it seemed Spirit was already accompanying me and will be on the way.

"Yeah…" It was pretty obvious Spirit wasn't interested in small talk with her.

"I guess he can never have enough friends, can he?" She commented in a rather playful manner instead of a humiliating or intimidating one. Spirit only slightly pouted her face in soft angry discomfort. "I'm Starlight…?" She introduced, not knowing how to exactly handle Spirit's reaction.

"Spirit…" Spirit returned, turning her head away and beginning to walk ahead, ultimately disengaging from conversation.

"Is she okay…?" Starlight asked me, taking the obvious hint.

"She's just…shy." I came up with.

* * *

Back on the other side, Spirit led the way for possibly two reasons. One, she was left with the directions before I woke up this morning. Two, she didn't want to be around Starlight. Either way, we were brought to Applejack's farm which didn't take too long. However, there wasn't exactly a warm welcome waiting for us…

"Hey, hey, listen" There was a slightly-off key voice singing an unfamiliar tune, causing for Starlight and I to share a confused look with each other.

"We've got a message for you" The voice continued after receiving a loud feedback. All of this was heard from the big red barn that looked just like the one back home.

"We're not all alike

But our friendship is true" We made it to the inside of the barn and found all of the girls playing this song. On the other hand, Spike and Sunset Shimmer were sort of suffering near the amp where all this was heard. Spike covered his ears and shut his eyes. Sunset Shimmer cringed lightly.

"Yeah, we're really different

But we still get along" Everyone appeared to have noticed Twilight's performance with the song. Even I couldn't believe that she actually…well…sounded…less than adequate. Rainbow Dash sent a look over to Fluttershy, which stopped her from playing with her tambourine for some reason.

"So hey, hey, listen to our song" Afterwards, Rainbow Dash allowed Fluttershy to continue. I wasn't sure why she did all that. I didn't think Twilight even knew what she was doing herself.

"You may think you're in control" The intense feedback continuously bothered the others, even Starlight. It even caused Pinkie Pie to stop, leaving an absolute obvious hole with the instruments. In fact, she looked bored and uninterested. It wasn't until Applejack and Rarity each gave her an intimidating look to get her back on track.

"But we're here to prove you wrong

With the friendship in our music

With the power of our song" Out everyone else, it seemed Rainbow Dash was the only one actually enjoying expressing her skill into the song.

"Gonna stomp our feet, clap our hands

With the magic of friendship" Twilight looked around a bit self-consciously. It seemed she might have known how well the song was going with the others.

"Gonna stop your evil plan"

Rainbow Dash finished with her guitar and seemed to have high potential in activating her magic. However, when she looked around to see if anyone was on the same level, they appeared disheartened or bored. From the look of that scene, she lost interest plus the spark of magic.

"Eh, that sounded... _way_ better than the last... five times you've played it. Heh heh." Spike nervously shared an interesting detail.

"Nnope." Big Macintosh just had to come out at the right time to share his thoughts, leaving to Spike to whimper in fear.

"I think it's pretty obvious what's going wrong with this counter-spell." Rainbow Dash broadcasted to everyone.

"You're turnin' what should be the chorus into a five-minute guitar solo?" Applejack argued.

"I have to pick up the slack _some_ how!" Rainbow fought back. "Are you guys even trying?!"

"I'm trying." Fluttershy softly mentioned.

"It's fine." Twilight nervously laughed. "It'll be fine. One more time from the top!" Yeah… Twilight didn't look so good.

"Wow…" Starlight spoke up with crossed arms as she had been observing the scene. "I didn't know your friends…had a band."

Everyone heard Starlight's comment and looked her way, especially Sunset Shimmer.

"Starlight!" Sunset Shimmer stood up in surprise. "Y-you're here…!" She still didn't seem too ready in meeting her again.

"Yeah." Starlight seemed to casually respond back. "I heard things…changed…"

"Yeah…a lot of things…" Sunset Shimmer rubbed the back of her head nervously.

"Hey." Rainbow Dash spoke up. "Wasn't she with her when Sunset Shimmer was still…you know?" Rainbow Dash twirled a finger outside of her ear.

However, Sunset Shimmer seemed to care more about the fact that Starlight was here instead of focusing on Rainbow's insensitive gesture. "Forget about it." She directed towards her comment and turned to Starlight. "Hey… Um… I'm…glad you're here." Sunset Shimmer struggled to speak. "Um… I didn't get a chance to tell you…but…for what it's worth…I'm…" She clasped her hands together and bowed her head like she did with me. "I'm really sorry…for what happened last time."

"Don't worry about it." Starlight returned, refraining from getting too emotional or feely. "We've all made mistakes we're not proud of…" I could tell she spoke from experience.

"Yeah…" Sunset Shimmer spoke as her eyes wandered to the side. "Believe me… I know."

It was great that there was an apology and forgiveness…but I've got to make sure Sunset Shimmer and Starlight settle their baggage with what happened between them in the past. There's no way you can just leave something like that in the dust and never talk about it again.

"Well, if you guys don't mind…" Rainbow went off again. "We should really get back to rehearsing. We gotta be in top shape for the sirens."

"Starlight." Sunset Shimmer seemed to perk up a bit. "Actually, this may sound a little weird…but we're trying to beat this other band of three evil girls with music. Since you're a singer and all…maybe…you could help us?"

"Whoa whoa whoa." Rainbow Dash waved her hands disapprovingly. "We've got enough as it is. We don't have room for another singer."

"She doesn't have to be in the band!" Sunset Shimmer defended. "She can just…give us tips or something… She has real experience with an actually pretty famous band. I'm sure she could help us. Maybe…she can be like a manager or something?"

I wasn't sure if Starlight was actually willing to do something like that, but the expression on her face as she thought about it said otherwise. "Actually…" She tapped a finger on her chin. "That might be fun. I'm never really taught anyone anything like this before."

Sunset Shimmer's smile grew while Rainbow Dash still didn't look so sure.

"Fine." Rainbow Dash finally agreed with crossed arms. "But _only_ until we kick the Dazzlings' sorry butts!"

Coming from her fiery-at-times attitude, Starlight chuckled. "You really think I'm going to stay here afterwards?"

" _Anyways!_ " Rainbow avoided and changed the subject. "Since you apparently have your own band wherever you come from, why don't you start teaching Twilight a few things?" She placed the spotlight on Twilight, causing her to feel some immediate discomfort. "She could really use them." Rainbow Dash sure was blunt…

"Actually…" Rarity added, seeming to have something else in mind. "Perhaps we could take a short break, try on some of the wardrobe choices I've put together?" She grabbed ahold of a portable hanger for clothes and brought it out for everyone to see. "I'm particularly fond of this one." She rummaged through and quickly presented a flashy costume. "Eh, of course we could always go with something a bit more modern." She mentioned after looking herself over.

"We're tryin' to save our school here. Enough with the costumes!" Applejack reacted, appearing to have dealt with this many times before.

"Oh, you can _never_ have enough costumes!" Rarity argued in a sort of robotic voice from another costume she unusually had on hand.

"She just wants to make things fun!" Pinkie Pie sided with Rarity. "Isn't that what being in a band supposed to be?" She angrily played a rimshot with her drums, even though her expression wasn't on par.

"You don't have _time_ for any of this!" Sunset Shimmer cried out after having stared at her phone. "You're supposed to check in at the Battle of the Bands in fifteen minutes!"

After sharing a loud gasp, all of the band members began panicking. "Oh, no!"

Immediately afterwards, all of them began scrambling around inside the barn to clean up and pack their things. Twilight stood in the middle of it, looking more unstable than the rest of them. "What? But it's not ready! If we play our counter-spell in the first round and it doesn't work, the sirens will know what we're up to and make sure we don't get a chance to play it again!"

They all suddenly screeched to a stop, having heard what Twilight warned about.

"Then we'll have to _buy_ ourselves some time so you can keep workin' on it!" Applejack suggested after exchanging a look with one another.

"But how do you propose we do _that_?" Rarity questioned.

"We compete in the Battle of the Bands for real!" Rainbow pointed out excitedly. "I take over lead vocals again and we stay alive until the finals! We unleash the counter-spell _then_!" She turned to Twilight. "You'll have figured it out by finals, right?"

"Of course she will." Spike assured, patting Twilight confidently. "Twilight Sparkle's never met a problem she couldn't solve. Right, Twilight?"

"R-r-right…" Twilight anxiously agreed.

"Then let's go win us a Battle of the Bands!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed as they took off towards the school.

"Uh…" I stood there, having had watched everything just happen on the side. "I didn't even…get to practice with…Mmm."

Starlight lightly slapped me on the back, gesturing that I get on going in following the others. "You'll be fine."

"And what makes you think that…?" I muttered under my breath and decided to follow on with her gesture.

Interestingly, I spotted Spirit at the corner of my eye. She had said nothing throughout the entire conversation held inside the barn and only crossed her arms as she leaned on the doorway. I wasn't sure if I had seen correctly, but as Starlight walked behind me, I seemed to notice Spirit give her a quiet glare with a bowed head as she walked past her.

* * *

"Welcome to the first ever Canterlot High School Battle of the Bands." Everyone that had gathered in the gym heard Principal Celestia announce on the stage I believed we were supposed to be performing on. "I believe I speak for everyone when I say it is by far the greatest thing we have ever done here at this school!" Cheers roared from the excited participants and audience. "We are so glad our three newest students encouraged us to turn this event into something exciting!" She presented the three 'students' at the back of the bleachers. In turn, one flipped a part of her hair carelessly while another waved innocently. They still don't seem to have the same intimidation other villains we've faced before _did_ have…

"But, as this is now a competition, we can only choose one winner. Who is it going to be?" Principal Luna borrowed the microphone, causing dismay and anger among the students.

I wanted my inexperience with the violin to be known, but I wasn't so sure that telling Rainbow Dash or maybe even the rest of them was a good idea. I certainly didn't want to start panic. I was hoping that I'd at least get warmed up to the instrument again at the time of practice…but apparently that didn't happen. Turning to the next musical expert that is more prone to being calm and collected, though sometimes _too_ cold, I spoke with Starlight.

"Hey…" I called her in a low voice so the others couldn't hear me. "So…I didn't get to practice earlier and I'm afraid I might screw up as soon as we start. What should I do?"

"You didn't just get this instrument and haven't tried playing it, have you?" She inquired. "Because if you did, you are seriously an idiot for even wanting to play it here in the first place."

Exactly what I meant by too cold…

With a drained and exhausted expression due to her remarks, I answered with not much enthusiasm. "No, no… I did play it… Before I even got it as a gift." Getting into the subject, I reverted my expression back to worry. "It's just that… You know… I'm still not that experienced. I haven't tried playing a song by myself or anything. I hardly know how to work out a few notes."

"But you know how to play something, right?" She focused on. "Even if it's just a few notes?"

"I guess so, if you put it that way…"

"Then that's all you need." Starlight confirmed, having me feel a little better. "You're not looking forward to rocking out some solo, right? As long as you don't care about attention and play in the background, that's all you really need. After all, if you want my advice, what you can do is sort of strengthen the chorus. In example, play a note you know well that'll add more emphasis to a certain part of a song. You get what I'm trying to say? It's pretty hard trying to explain it in words."

"I think so… So, go with the flow?" I tried to summarize.

"Yeah, sure…" It seemed what I said somewhat worked. "You're so big about following your heart, right? Try taking that into account."

"Yeah, okay…" I thought to myself as I stared at the ground.

Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna had set up an easy-fold table where they sat and watched the performance as they scribbled notes onto their paper. Huh…just reminded me back when I did the same exact thing with Miss Cadence.

Those two troublesome boys were called up first, mostly because they were so confident that they had the entire competition in the bag. They wore some strange yet familiar attire and began beatboxing. However, it was done rather poorly. Thinking back when Pinkie beatboxed, I enjoyed that much more than this.

"Aw, yeah! Snips and Snails indahouse, yo!" Snail began.

"They call me MC Snips and that ain't no lie" Snips rapped. "My favorite food is like pumpkin pie!"

What?

"I'm DJ Snazzy Snails, I like whales, When I go to the beach, I always bring my pails"

Uh…did these two just come up with this on the spot? Pinkie Pie on the other hand seemed to be enjoying it as her two drumsticks poked out of her hair.

"Everybody knows my favorite color is orange, My rhymes are so fly, they're better than... um..." Snips stuttered at the spot until Snails came to his rescue…which wasn't exactly for the best.

"Than an orange, yo!"

"Yeah!"

"Yeah!"

"Represent!"

After a couple of unamused and bored looks from the Principal and Vice Principal, it seemed that they had trouble coming up with any more new lyrics to rap. Yeah…you don't exactly come up with things on the spot like that…

"What do we... What do we do now?" Snips asked during their beatboxing.

"Get off the stage, I'd like to leave right now" Snails mixed into the rap.

After a few seconds of more beatboxing, they finally wrapped things up.

"Bam! That just happened!" Snips cried out in astonishment.

"Aw, yeah! We out!" Snails added.

"Snips and Snails outta here!" Snips huddled with Snails back-to-back and both of them dropped their microphones onto the floor, causing an insanely loud feedback.

"Please do not drop the microphones." Principal Celestia directed in the most stern and intimidating tone I have ever heard her speak in. This includes the one back home.

"Yeah! Bam!" Snips smacked hands with Snails as he laughed, picking up the microphones afterwards. "In your face, Rainbooms!" He told us as they stepped off the stage.

Yeah…

"Least we know _one_ group who won't stand in the way of us gettin' to the finals." Applejack shared after the performance.

She was actually telling the truth right there.

"Let's get ready to rock!" Rainbow Dash revealed her inner desire and motivation.

"Wait! Where's Rarity?" Pinkie Pie asked, surprising me as I didn't even know she was gone to begin with.

"Oh! Here! I'm here!" We suddenly heard with metallic jingling. Rarity came up towards us as she panted. Nevertheless, she presented herself in a classy manner as she wore one of the outfits she must had prepared for a show. As the others didn't give her a response she most likely wanted to hear, she continued to speak. "We will be performing in front of an audience. I'm not going to wear something fabulous? Hmph."

Having released her frustration with the costume idea before, Applejack only slapped a hand to her face and groaned in disgust. "Guh..."

"We're on next." Rainbow Dash pointed a thumb back to the stage. "Let's get set up so we can start playing."

As I followed the others onto the stage with the violin case still intact with my hand, I heard Starlight offer a sign of good luck. "Break a leg." She said with a sort of smug grin. Spirit remained beside her along with Sunset Shimmer. Spirit was still quiet as ever.

Once the majority of us were set up, I was just about trying to reach the best position I could with my violin. I remembered that it had to go somewhere around your chin or something, and I was trying to readjust it for the new body.

"You know how to play that thing, right?" Rainbow Dash finally had the nerve to worry about. Just seconds right before we were about to play.

"Sure…" I narrowed my eyes in response.

Nevertheless, she ignored them and continued on. "Great. Just follow along with us, kay? Don't do anything to put anyone out of sync!"

"If I even could…" I muttered to myself as I brought the bow up to the strings.

"Remember, we have to be good enough to make it through but not _so_ good we let the sirens see the magic within us." Twilight reminded all of us in a low voice. "They could realize we plan to use it against them."

"Got it!" Rainbow Dash confirmed loudly. "Be cool enough to win, but not _so_ cool that we end up showing off the whole ears and tails and rainbows thing. Sooo... about twenty percent less cool." She turned to Pinkie. "Let's hit it off!"

"One! Two!" Pinkie smacked her drumsticks until they all began singing in unison.

"We've just got the day to get ready

And there's only so much time to lose

Because tonight, yeah, we're here to party

So let's think of something fun to do"

Alright. Okay. I considered myself pretty lucky since all I had to do was really follow in with a few notes. However, being how I was at the time, I still considered it a pretty big challenge, especially since I didn't practice at all beforehand. Either way, I decided to start at Rarity's mark, creating a sort of blending yet shaky note and modifying the pitch/level everytime they did. I kept it really subtle.

"We don't know (we don't know) what's gonna happen

We just know (we just know) it's gonna feel right

All our friends are here

And it's time to ignite the lights!"

Since I was in the back behind Rarity, I immediately noticed something strange happen as it happened. A pair of magnets dropped down from above and seemed to aim at Rarity's sleeves. When they were close enough, they quickly caught onto the metallic additions she had with the sleeves and ceased her from playing.

"Shake your tail 'cause we're here to have a party tonight

Shake your tail, shake your tail"

I didn't know if the others had even noticed because they kept playing like everything was fine. Meanwhile, Rarity was being dragged around like a puppet.

"Shake your tail 'cause we're here to have a party tonight

Shake your tail, shake your tail"

Rarity was forced to bump into Applejack and accidentally flipped over her hat. At first, I thought Applejack would notice and try to do something about the trouble Rarity was in. Instead, she only sent a glare back at Rarity as if she was doing it on purpose.

"So what you didn't get it right the first time"

"Laugh it off, no one said it is a crime"

As Pinkie sung that and surprised everyone with a confetti cannon from her drums, I looked around for someone or something to help. I noticed Spirit at the side of the stage. It seemed she noticed the ruckus too, but she didn't know what to do. Nevertheless, she caught me looking towards her, allowing me to gesture her directions with my eyes.

"Do your thing, you know you're an original" Rarity tried to sing, but as she was forcefully being pulled away from the mic, she could hardly be heard at some parts.

I looked up at the ceiling with my eyes, motioning my head towards the stage for Spirit to come and help. Spirit looked up at the stage and seemed to recognize the problem. She looked back down at me, held a thumbs up, and nodded her head in confidence. She left and from there on, I trusted she would fix the problem and get the job done.

"Your ideas are so funny that they're criminal" Applejack continued with a frown, kicking away Rarity when she bumped onto her again.

"Ohhh-ahh!" Twilight sang along until confetti was caught in her throat.

"We've just got the day to get ready" Twilight coughed until Fluttershy quickly stepped to her side to slap her back with her tambourine. It seemed to work as Twilight spat out the piece of confetti lodged inside her, but she lagged for a while on the song until she got back on track.

"And there's only so much time to lose

Because tonight, yeah, we're here to party

So let's think of something fun to do"

I tried focusing back on playing, hoping Rarity would be free soon as I couldn't keep track on Spirit's progress. Nevertheless, another problem arose. I heard Fluttershy stop playing her instrument and turned my head to see her frozen. A spotlight had suddenly lit her up brightly for everyone to see. Knowing about her stage fright problems already, nothing good was bound to come from it.

"We don't know (we don't know) what's gonna happen

We just know (we just know) it's gonna feel right"

She continuously roamed around the stage, completely forgetting about the song. All she cared about was getting away from that spotlight.

"All our friends are here

And it's time to ignite the lights!"

I heard a noise strike the floor. Whatever was controlling Rarity finally stopped, as she was no longer being forced to keep her hands away from her instrument. Rarity tried to forget what had happened, but she knew she had to finish the song first. She resumed playing in confusion. I turned to see Fluttershy unknowingly come my way as she tried to run from the spotlight. She bumped onto me, taking a while before she realized who she was next to.

After that, the spotlight stopped focusing on Fluttershy and seemed to actually sort of…drop dead at the center of the stage, restoring balance once again.

"Shake your tail 'cause we're here to have a party tonight

Shake your tail, shake your tail

Shake your tail 'cause we're here to have a party tonight

Shake your tail, shake your tail

Shake your tail 'cause we're here to have a party tonight

Shake your tail, shake your tail

Shake your tail 'cause we're here to have a party tonight

Shake your tail, shake your tail

Shake your tail 'cause we're here to have a party tonight!"

It appears they finally finished as they all came to a stop. The majority of them looked towards Principal Celestia and Vice Principal to see their reaction on our…strange performance.

Surprisingly, out of everyone else from the audience, they were the only ones who looked as us with a pleased look on their faces as they clapped enthusiastically. From there, they wrote notes as everyone began to walk off-stage. I followed them still having not much of a clue on what happened backstage.

"Oh no!" I heard Rarity cry out once out of sight. I saw her delicately and softly trying to remove the magnets from her sleeves. "Please tell me these will come off cleanly! I can't afford a tear on this!"

"Rarity, were you tryin' to make us lose out there?!" Applejack confronted Rarity after resting her bass down on the ground.

"Wh- Oh! This was not my fault! This was an act of sabotage!" Rarity defended herself.

"She's right." We heard Starlight's voice behind us. We turned to see Spirit just finish landing after she jumped from the middle of the ladder leading to the stairwell above the stage. Starlight finished climbing down to face the rest of us with hands on her hips. "Boy…that is really messed up." She commented as she stared back up at the stairwell. "A group of kids up there were messing with you guys. Had to smack a couple around to get them to leave. Of all the times I've been on stage, I've never seen something like that…"

"It must be how bad the Sirens' spell is." Sunset Shimmer mentioned. "It's got everybody so swept up in the competition, they'll do whatever it takes to win!"

"Well, we wouldn't have had so many problems if Rarity here didn't decide to play dress-up!" Applejack continued to blame. "We don't need to dress to win, Rarity! We need to sound good! Is there some reason that concept seems to escape you?"

"And what was with the confetti, Pinkie Pie?!" Rainbow Dash started elsewhere after having just picked out the last pieces of confetti lodged into her guitar. "How am I supposed to shred if there's paper stuck in my frets?!"

"It _was_ pretty distracting..." Fluttershy timidly added in to the complaint.

"Ugh! Says the girl who was running from a light the whole time!" Pinkie Pie reacted defensively. " _A light!"_

"Hey!" Sunset Shimmer barged into the fighting to hopefully resolve it. "Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna still liked the performance you gave. It wasn't all that bad! Compared to Snips and Snails, it was still a major win! After all, all that matters right now is advancing to the next round." She turned to Twilight. "But it'd be great if we can have the counter-spell ready as soon as possible. I don't know what else might happen later into this competition." She turned towards the stage and noticed the next group coming to play. "You all find a place to practice where the sirens can't hear you. I'll keep an eye on things around here."

"I'll stay here with her." Starlight decided, leaving us to go along without her.

As I began following the girls outside the back entrance of the gym, I looked at Spirit and held a fist up horizontally towards her. "Great job out there, Spirit." I commended.

She noticed my gesture and actually managed to smile a bit, which was a good thing to see. "Thanks." She pounded my fist modestly.

"Well, where should we go practice now?" Applejack asked.

"We don't know where the Sirens might pop up or be, so we probably shouldn't use a classroom…" Twilight suggested until someone else spoke out of the blue.

"Losers…" We heard a muttered breath, but for some reason, the low volume struck high enough for us to hear.

We all stopped, and Twilight turned to question the individual who seemed to mutter that. It looked like we've seen him before. It was that guy always carrying his guitar around.

"Excuse me?" Twilight confronted. She didn't look like she was fighting back with attitude. It seemed more like she didn't catch what he said.

"Uh, you guys hear something?" He asked his other bandmates.

"Uhh-uhh."

"Aw, nope."

They played along with his aggravating behavior.

"What is—"

Before Twilight could even speak properly, he interrupted her rudely.

"There it is again. So annoying."

Yeah, I knew apparently every student was under the spell, but that didn't stop me from wanting to almost desperately knock his teeth out. I clenched my fists and almost was about to make a move until Spirit suddenly grabbed a hold of my hand. I turned to her and noticed her shaking her head. "It's not worth it.

"She's right." Applejack agreed, gently pushing the bothered Twilight forward. "We've got things to do." She led us to advance further down the hallway.

"Hah!" He laughed behind us. "Like there's any worth choking on stupid confetti!" He taunted.

Twilight was especially hurt since this was directed straight at her. I was shocked to see Twilight actually begin tearing up. She seemed to try wiping away the tears before anyone else could see what she had just done, but I know she was still hurting deeply inside. Just then, I remembered how hard it was for her to take personal attacks like that. Heck, she was even tougher when it came to physical attacks…but as for emotional ones… I've seen her experience with such jabs before. The first thing that came to my mind was when Starlight freaked out that one time at the Crystal Spa and intimidated and insulted her before I stepped in to get punched back. She didn't take that lightly at all.

Even though Spirit told me it wasn't worth it, I couldn't help but want to stop and head back. But Spirit actually beat me to it. She stopped to stand firmly in the middle of the hallway as the rest of the girls continued on. She was staring at the ground with a provoked frown and clenched fists angling upwards with risen shoulders. My attention was turned towards Spirit instead.

"Spirit?" I called in concern.

"Keep walking." She instructed me.

"But…"

She shut her eyes tightly for what she was about to say next. "Twilight needs you by her side, Alex. Just please go. I'll be right there…"

She seemed really steamed… Even I felt like I didn't want to linger around her any longer. I decided to move along as she asked, trusting she'd be back with us. I sent one last glance towards her before catching up with the others.

* * *

 **Spirit**

* * *

I didn't know what came over me. As I just stood there, I almost couldn't even move. I even felt like…bursting into tears. Why? Behind me, I could hear that boy begin to mess with his guitar and play a few notes. But I wasn't done with him yet.

I turned around and walked towards them with an irritated scowl. It seemed they weren't expecting me as they were too busy minding their own business. Once I stood in front of them, waiting to get their attention, that boy with the guitar stopped and looked up to see me.

"What do you want, freak-eyes?"

That tore it.

For no particular reason, I snatched the drumsticks out of the drummer's hands and stuck it between the boy's frets and strings. When he turned his attention to his guitar, I forcefully pushed him against the lockers behind him, burning the sound of the impact in my mind.

"You should crawl in a hole and die."

After, I turned around and left without looking back. I guessed they probably shrugged it off and continued on, but I couldn't. I felt myself wanting to break down in the middle of the walk. Where Alex and the others left to was still several feet away, and I didn't think I could make it. I made a sharp turn towards another hallway felt the tears escaping around my eyes. I wanted to look for a place of solitude, but I was only able to find what appeared to be another way into the gym.

"The next band to take the stage will be Trixie and the Illusions." I heard the voice of one that was judging the performances from an intercom.

The space near the double doors to the gym was darkened. It was as good as it was going to get because I had no time in finding another place and past those doors were a bunch of other crowds I didn't want to be near.

I sat down in the corner and buried my face into my legs. From there, I just lost it. I tried not to be noisy, but every now and then, I let out a whimper that I was a bit embarrassed and ashamed to hear.

Unexpectedly, there was a malicious chuckle. "Aw… Tears already?"

I looked up with a few tears still making their way out of my eyes. At the next moment, I was not only miserable, but extremely frightened. I saw those three girls again. Did they know?! Do they remember?! Are they here to…?!

"What's with the long face?" Adagio mocked. "Your band's only getting started. There's no need to cry now." I couldn't speak. My heart raced and I could only bury my head back onto my legs in silence. I felt them continuing to stand there and stare at me. I didn't hear anything else after what felt like hours. At some point, she spoke again. "…have I seen you before…?"

I gasped, widening my eyes which were hidden from sight.

"What are you talking about, Adagio?" Aria questioned in her usual annoyed tone. "She's just some girl. I've never seen her here before the whole time we've been here."

"That's just it." Adagio grew closer. "There's something about that that's odd." She now kneeled down in front of me, and I tightened my grip on myself as I begged her inside to go away. I felt a nasty scowl attack me from outside.

"What's wrong, Adagio?" Sonata took humorously. "Are you like, jealous of her or something?"

"Shut it!" Adagio shouted back at Sonata, scaring me. "You're hiding something…" I heard Adagio say directly towards me. "Could it be…that…?"

I heard the sound of the gym door opening, interrupting her.

"What's going on here?" I heard a familiar friendly voice.

"Oh, well if it isn't the one who showed us around the school!" Adagio pointed out.

I slowly lifted up my head and noticed Adagio was standing back up and facing the person who just arrived to the scene. Sunset Shimmer!

Sunset Shimmer crossed her arms and looked at them with a deep but soft glare. "I know what you three are up to."

"Why…whatever are you talking about?" Adagio, in no way, tried to answer innocently.

"You're never gonna get away with this." Sunset Shimmer threw straight to the point.

Adagio laughed. "Why? Because you didn't?" She surprised Sunset Shimmer there. "Oh, we know all about you, Sunset Shimmer. You've got quite the reputation at Canterlot High." She explained as they began to circle around Sunset.

"I've changed! I'm in a much better place now!" Sunset argued.

"Waiting in the wings while your friends have all the fun?" Aria joined in trying to corrupt Sunset Shimmer's self-esteem.

"Oh, yes, you girls are so tight. And yet... they didn't ask you to be in the band." Adagio brought up.

"Probably afraid no one would want to see them play if _she_ was in the group." Aria added tastelessly.

"Too bad! So sad!" Sonata ridiculed lastly.

"If it's any consolation, no one is going to remember you at all by the time we're done." Adagio confidently addressed as she began to leave with the other girls. She aggressively bumped into Sunset Shimmer with her hips as Sonata repeated the action after.

I could have easily let them leave, but I couldn't sit there and do nothing while Sunset Shimmer took the blazing heat off of me. After all…they were here because of me…

"You're wrong!" I stood there with teeth clenched and tears brimming from the corner of my eyes. I was really scared. So scared. But I couldn't stand back like a coward. I had to face my problems straight up if I wanted to be brave. Adagio stopped and turned back, leading for her followers to do the same. "You're not going to hurt anyone! Just…leave her alone!"

Adagio's mouth opened lightly, as if she just realized something about me or with what I just said. Soon, she immediately began walking towards me, and I stood there bracing myself as much as I could. She grabbed the bottom of my face with her fingers and made me face directly at her. I couldn't last keeping my eyes shut, so I had to look right into hers. "You…" She said. "It was you…wasn't it…?" I couldn't help but whimper and gasp. "You're the reason we're stuck here…!"

I could see the flame that suddenly exploded in her eyes. I was afraid of what was going to happen next. I had no idea. I could only wish that I was back with Alex because I was here all alone…

"Shouldn't you girls be getting ready for your little show…?" Another voice came from the gym doors.

It was now Starlight as she stood with an attitude that clearly revealed her disapproval of the current situation.

Adagio thankfully removed herself from in front of me and turned in the direction of Starlight. "Well, if it isn't the little demon's sidekick."

Starlight was completely unfazed. "Pffft." She took light-heartedly. "I've heard better insults from a ten year old."

"Why? Because you've frightened them with your face?" Adagio tried smugly attacking again.

Starlight didn't succumb to her poison. "I'm not the one with the clown wig on my head, honey." She wittily responded.

Sonata, being as she always was, snickered and giggled at Starlight's comment.

"Shut it!" Adagio commanded Sonata and then angrily faced Starlight once again. "We'll see who's laughing when everybody is screaming our names out there."

Starlight didn't bother answering. She only allowed them to pass as she gave them an unamused and unintimidated expression. Adagio was sure to glance back at me one more time before they left. Once they were finally gone, she looked back at us. "You guys okay?"

Sunset Shimmer sighed and looked away in dejection. "Not really."

After seeing what Starlight did… _Starlight_ …I couldn't help but feel…guilty… I hugged both of my hands together and bowed my head down in shame. All this time, my eyes had been burning with hatred from looking at her. But here…she saved not only Sunset Shimmer…but…me…

* * *

 **Alex**

* * *

I wondered what had happened to Spirit because she never came back like she said she would. I worried that something might have happened…but then again…Sunset Shimmer and Starlight were nearby. Maybe…she's with them? But why would she be anyway?

There wasn't much to practice with since Twilight still hadn't finished that counter-spell. The others already seemed to be in top-notch standing, but at least I was given the time and space to somewhat practice my instrument, even if it was working on individual notes. We didn't go back to the stage until we were next in line to perform.

When we were, I realized that Spirit _did_ end up being there with Sunset Shimmer and Starlight for some strange reason… However, she was sitting with her legs huddled to her chest and her arms wrapped around them in uneasy silence. She looked to be deep in thought, and I wasn't so sure it was okay to go talk to her in the condition she was in. Sunset Shimmer wasn't looking so great either. She wasn't sitting like Spirit, but she crossed her arms and looked away, trapped in thought as well. It was only Starlight that was looking out into the stage as she observed the bands that were constantly at it with their performances.

So many things seemed to be happening during that moment, and I wasn't sure what to do. I wondered if I should just keep silently practicing, just to make sure I didn't mess anything up that would stop us from advancing. I supposed I could talk to these girls later after we were set with a plan. Speaking about plans… I turned to Twilight to notice her frantically writing on Fluttershy's notebook. I don't think there was any doubt that she was having trouble with the counter-spell, but what could I do? I didn't know anything about making spells. Sigh. So many things I wanted to help handle, but all I could do was just make sure I didn't stop us from getting the chance to stop the Sirens in the first place.

Ironically, after another one of our awkward performances, we kicked Octavia out of the competition. She was there, playing her cello, and I felt pretty guilty because I mean…she's pretty much the reason why I'm here on the stage in the first place…

Either way, tensions still seemed high among the group as they fought over little things. Twilight tried to calm them down with talk about her counter-spell, which still wasn't finished, and ultimately Starlight had to smack a few heads around to get them to straighten up. She tried explaining how fighting would just separate everyone, but they didn't really seem to take her too seriously, considering they didn't even know her.

Somehow, by the way things were going, we actually made it to the semi-finals. The Dazzlings just kicked that one kid from the hallway right out of the competition. Served him right. Even though the Dazzlings were our enemies, I even felt like thanking them a little…

"This is it!" Sunset Shimmer announced after studying our placement on the competition. "Last round and you're in the finals!" She turned to Twilight. "Unless you think the counter-spell is ready to be played now."

Twilight didn't look so confident, which pretty much gave her answer.

"Don't worry, Twilight." Applejack assured her. "Finals aren't until tonight. We'll get in a little more practice before we're supposed to hit the stage. We won't let you down!"

The rest of them agreed in confidence.

" _You_ won't let _me_ down..." Twilight looked to say under her breath.

"Um, I was just wondering." Fluttershy timidly began speaking to Rainbow Dash. "We haven't played any of my songs yet, and..."

"It's the semifinals." Rainbow Dash tried to reason with Fluttershy, punching her arm in a friendly manner. "We gotta do 'Awesome As I Wanna Be'."

"Don't know why I even asked..." Fluttershy reacted with disappointment.

Trixie's band had just made their way onto the stage and began their performance.

"Ya better believe

I got tricks up my sleeve

And I captivate

'Cause I'm powerful and grea-ea-eat"

Welp, all we could do at the time was either plan a little more or watch and see.

"Hey, Alex…" Applejack placed a hand on my shoulder, turning me around to meet with her. "I'm just saying…but I think you might have a tough time working with Rainbow Dash's song."

"Rainbow Dash's song?" I repeated in question. "'Awesome As I Wanna Be' ?"

"That's the one." Applejack replied. "The whole song's practically her and her guitar. You might not even have to play. I guarantee you the spotlight is going to be on her."

"How do you know that?"

"We've rehearsed it a couple times before… She practically drains us all out with her instrument…"

"And you're okay with that?"

Applejack only shrugged. "What's more important right now is getting to the finals so Twilight can finish her counter-spell. If we have to put up with Rainbow Dash for a little while to get there…well…so be it."

"Ah…" I understood. "Well…I honor your…sacrifice?"

Applejack returned a sort of smirk and patted me before she exited the conversation.

I looked around and noticed Spirit in the same manner ever since we had gotten back here on stage. I decided it was a good time as any to speak with her. I walked her way and took a seat next to her.

"What's wrong? You haven't looked so good since what happened back at the hallway." I told her.

"I just want to leave already…" She sadly responded.

I couldn't figure out what was getting to her so badly, so all I could come up with was a few words of encouragement. "Hey…stay strong, alright? We'll be done with this soon enough."

"Am I bad person?" She unexpectedly asked.

"Huh?" I didn't know why she just brought that up.

"I don't think they deserved it… They just were…"

I was confused. I still didn't know what she was talking about in the first place, but I didn't have time to get into it as Trixie's song seemed to just about finish.

"...I got tricks up my sleeve

See me dominate

'Cause I'm powerful and grea-ea-eat!" She threw out her pick towards the judges.

Principal Celestia laughed in both joy and entertainment. "Fantastic!" She applauded as Luna joined her.

Trixie made her way over to us to most likely gloat. "Hmph. You're never gonna top that performance, 'Rain-goons'." She proudly acknowledged herself. "You shouldn't be allowed to when you have such a big advantage over the rest of us."

"My superior guitar playing and off-the-charts awesome singing voice?" Rainbow Dash fired back after having stared at Trixie with a smug grin.

"Oh, don't be ridiculous." Trixie flipped her hand. "I mean _her_!" She pointed at Twilight, whom blushed back in embarrassment. "If you were really all that, Rainbow Dash, you wouldn't have needed to bring in some magical ringer to have half a chance. Everyone's talking about it." It seemed that Trixie picked only on her since Twilight was to substitute Rainbow Dash in singing for the band. Me? Well, I guess I just wasn't good enough to be picked on. Not that I cared.

"Ha! Puh-leeze! I could win this thing as a solo act and everybody knows it!" Rainbow Dash returned instantly, causing silent steaming kettles in the back.

Trixie scoffed. "Sure you could." Afterwards, she performed her signature act and disappeared from sight in a cloud of dust.

"She's gone!" Pinkie Pie cried out in horror after all the coughing, but once the dust settled, she seemed to notice someone hiding in the back. "Oh, wait. There she is." Trixie noticed and quickly dashed away.

"Next up, the Rainbooms." Principal Celestia announced, causing us to walk onto the stage.

"Knock 'em dead, Rainbooms!" Spike cheered from behind.

On the way, I noticed Twilight looking sullen and distressed. I realized how I've hardly even gotten to talk with her either since we got here. It wasn't like last time when were together practically the whole time. Everyone here was having their share of problems and it felt like too much to stay on track with for me. I wanted to sort of let her know I was there for her too, so I stepped to her side and held a hand on her shoulder.

"Take it easy, okay?" I told her. It was all I could come up with at the moment. "Don't push yourself so hard."

She smiled softly and nodded, but it didn't really change her mood in the long run.

Everyone got their own spotlight as the song started. Everyone…except me. As I've thought of before, I suppose my violin wasn't strong enough. But whatever. It puts less pressure on me and I could care less about being the center of attention.

"Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!" The girls chanted together until Rainbow Dash hopped into the center.

"Awesome as I wanna be!" Rainbow Dash sang in the lead.

"Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!" I noticed Fluttershy with a glare aimed straight at Rainbow Dash. I suppose this was about before with her songs never being played.

"Awesome as I wanna be!" Rainbow Dash moved out of sight, causing Fluttershy to roll her eyes and continue playing with a bad temper.

"First you see me riding on a sonic boom" She slid over to Twilight, startling her as she stood straight back up.

"Got my guitar shreddin' up my latest tune" She danced back as she rocked out on her guitar towards the center.

"There is nothin' you can do to beat me

I'm so good that you can't defeat me" She stopped between Applejack and Rarity, annoying them with her obvious ego.

"Yeah, I'm awesome, take caution

Watch out for me, I'm awesome as I wanna be

(Yeah!) I'm awesome, take caution

Watch out for me, I'm awesome as I wanna be" Rainbow continued singing as she showed off to not only us but the entire crowd ahead.

"Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!" The girls continuously chanted along as Rainbow Dash rocked out her loud guitar solo. I could see how annoying and tiresome it was getting for them since that was all they seemed to have had to say in the song.

"Step aside now, you're just gettin' in my way!" Rainbow Dash now made her way over to me, actually bringing some light to shed on me.

"I got sick chops you could never hope to play!" I narrowed my eyes, unable to tell if Rainbow Dash was really expressing how she felt or if it was all a part of the song.

"When it comes to makin' music, I'm the ruler

You wish you could be twenty percent cooler" She finally hopped off.

"Yeah, I'm awesome, take caution

Watch out for me, I'm awesome as I wanna be

(Yeah!) I'm awesome, take caution

Watch out for me, I'm awesome as I wanna be" She repeated at the center, soon receiving _all_ the spotlights from everyone else. She left every one of her band members in the dark, just like me.

She ran around for another immensely huge and longer guitar solo. At the moment, I noticed something strange happening to her. There was a glow coming from a certain part of her head. It must have been the magic from when they played! I wasn't sure what to do, but before that magic could burst out in her playing, I heard a shout from the side of the stage.

"Sunset! Wait!" It sounded like Starlight.

Sunset Shimmer ran into the stage and tackled Rainbow Dash to the ground, interrupting the flow of everyone else as they bumped into each other and eventually cut their entire song off. As soon as the lights came back on, Fluttershy freaked out and ran behind the curtains.

The excitement that once used to be in Rainbow Dash's eyes were now filled with a fiery glare. Sunset Shimmer noticed this, but she was too concerned about looking towards the judges. They didn't look too happy and Celestia angrily scribbled a most likely dissatisfying note.

"Now _that's_ the bad girl we love to hate!" I heard and saw the same kid back from the hallway. The way he announced it sounded like it gave him so much satisfaction.

Soon after, I even heard Octavia's voice add into the chaos that erupted from the crowd. "I knew she was still trouble!"

"The _real_ Sunset Shimmer is back!" Another felt the need to shout out.

Biting her lip, Sunset Shimmer froze in the middle of the stage. "No. It isn't like that."

I decided to place a hand on her and lightly pushed her back behind the curtains.

"What was that?!" Rainbow Dash immediately fired once Sunset Shimmer regrouped with them.

"You were showing them your magic!" Sunset Shimmer tried to reason for her actions. "I-I didn't know what else to do!"

"Ugh. Close the curtains? Unplug her amp? Give us a chance to deal with the situation?" Rarity seemed to be just as upset as Rainbow Dash was.

"Hey, hey!" I reached a hand out in defense of Sunset Shimmer. "It was in the heat of the moment! There was no way she could have thought of anything else to do. Besides, nothing would have stopped this from happening!" I found it to be true, at least. If we closed the curtains, everyone would question and freak out about why we stopped playing. Unplug the amp? Well…it'd still look bad. After all, Rainbow Dash was the lead in the song. How would everyone react if the lead in the song suddenly stopped? It's not exactly easy to come up with something on the spot like that. Otherwise…it might have even turned out as embarrassing as Snips and Snails.

"I'm sorry… I just wanted to help." Sunset Shimmer continued to apologize in shame.

Despite what I said, Rainbow Dash continued to bash on her. "Yeah, well, you didn't."

Applejack seemed to have some kind of sense when she came onto the argument. "None of this would've happened if _you_ weren't tryin' to show off – as usual."

I didn't want to blame anyone…but yeah…that was kind of true.

Before Rainbow could respond, Trixie came along to boast once again.

"Good show, 'Rain-brooms'." She said and then suddenly grabbed ahold of Sunset Shimmer. "I especially liked the part where Sunset Shimmer, in a fit of jealous rage, knocked out Rainbow Dash mid-guitar solo!"

"It wasn't a fit of jealous rage!" Sunset Shimmer swiftly screamed back at her with reddened cheeks. She had so desperately tried to make it clear, that she even scared Trixie in the moment. However, she looked back at everyone else, and they all seemed to give back a silent response.

Starlight unfortunately didn't really contribute anything to side with Sunset Shimmer. Instead, she walked up with crossed arms and held a sort of bored expression on her face. "Just go back where you came from, Twixie."

I couldn't understand whether Starlight intentionally mispronounced her name, or got it wrong from not knowing her long enough.

"It's _Trrrrrrrrrrrrixie_!" Trixie rolled her r in high emphasis to correct Starlight.

"Yeah, whatever." Starlight cared less as she glanced up towards the ceiling.

Despite that, Trixie looked back at the other side of the stage to see the judges conversing with one another.

"Ooh! Looks like they've already decided who'll be moving on to the finals!" Trixie brought out her mirror and looked over her hair. "I'm guessing it wasn't too difficult a decision." She mentioned as she flipped a bang conceitedly.

However, the gym doors behind them unexpectedly opened, and out came those three girls we were after. They gathered around the judges and began vocalizing for some reason. For another strange reason, I suddenly felt this sort of…de-ja-vu emotion all of a sudden. It was really odd. I don't believe I've heard them sing before…? Or have I…?

"What can we do?" Rarity revealed her worry. "There isn't gonna be another opportunity for us to play. And I had the most gorgeous outfit for the finals!"

"Yup, 'cause that's the real tragedy here, Rarity – that you won't get to play dress-up!" Applejack shot.

"You know perfectly well that is _not_ what I meant!" Rarity stood face-to-face with Applejack in anger.

"You guys wanna keep it down?" Rainbow Dash seemed to diffuse the situation. "They're about to announce who's moving on."

"Who are you kidding?" Fluttershy cried out pessimistically. "You know it isn't gonna be us."

Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna walked out onto the stage. "The band that will be joining the Dazzlings in tonight's finals..." Trixie stroked her hair confidently as she waited for her band to be called out. "The Rainbooms!" She began walking out until she suddenly realized what she just heard.

" _What?!"_ Trixie exclaimed out loud in surprise.

"Huh?" The others questioned as well.

Even though it was a surprise that we were picked instead, Starlight didn't seem to have the energy to change the expression on her face from before.

"Did they just say, 'the Rainbooms'?!" Pinkie asked for clarification.

"This isn't over!" Trixie stormed off the stage, proving to be in a fit of rage herself.

Nonetheless, the others walked out on stage where the principal and vice principal were.

"Congratulations, girls. You deserve it." Celestia said strangely.

Pinkie seemed confusingly upset, but Rainbow Dash clearly didn't seem to mind at all.

"Seriously?! We didn't even finish our—!" Rainbow Dash bumped her elbow against Pinkie Pie, stopping her from saying anything more.

"See you at tonight's big show, Rainbooms." Apparently the leader led the rest towards us, speaking band-to-band. "We are really looking forward to it." She mentioned before seeming to look past us. Her eyes darted almost over my shoulder. Once they turned to leave, I turned my head to notice Spirit behind me with a troubled look on her face.

"Yeah, well... not as much as we are!" Rainbow Dash argued as if she had just been insulted.

Out of the blue, every person from the crowd threw jeers at us.

"Zis never should haf been you, Rainbooms!" Photo Finish shouted from the bottom of the stage.

Everyone continued booing us down as the rest of the band members shamefully stared down at the floor. Every now and then, on the journey towards the gym doors, they would glance around them, but the jeers from everyone else pummeled their heads back down. I wasn't so much as affected to being…ashamed. If anything I was feeling a little annoyed out of their stupid reaction. Of course, the only person that absolutely didn't care was Starlight. She merely walked with an uninterested expression on her face with crossed arms.

As soon as we were outside, the boos seemed to fade out.

"Yeesh…" Rainbow Dash looked back at the gym doors with a lightly terrified expression. "That was…not awesome."

"What'd you expect?" Applejack asked. "You can't stand there and tell me that we did a better job than Trixie did. _She_ finished her song. We didn't."

"Who cares?" Rainbow Dash shrugged off. "We won. That's what matters. We can rock out in the finals _and_ use that counter-spell to beat the Sirens!" The rest of the others seemed to stay silent, as if Rainbow Dash hadn't caught on to something they had. "Come on." She led the way through halls. "We don't need to be in that boring gym anymore. We've got a new set!"

* * *

Our next set location was outside for a change. I had to admit, the area looked a lot better than the gym back inside. It was actually more of an auditorium. The shape of the area was sort of a half elliptical. The stage, which was under what looked to be a large saddle, stood in the center while the rest of the shape was filled in with seats.

Everyone else was doing their thing in setting up for the finals. Sunset Shimmer and Starlight were standing near what I guessed were the music controls and technical equipment for the lights and all that. Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Applejack were tuning or setting up their instruments. Twilight was hopefully wrapping up the counter-spell. Spirit sat on top of the big block where the drums were supposed to go. She didn't look as bad as she did before, but she still remained heavily quiet. Finally, Fluttershy didn't need to set or tune anything, so she was sitting around the corner of the stage messing with her tambourine.

I hadn't spoken to Fluttershy practically at all the whole time I've been here. I didn't need to have a long conversation with her or anything. I guess I just needed to know that…I don't know…we were good? I decided to spend that free time just to speak with her a little.

"Hey." I greeted as I sat next to her.

"…hi…" She shyly answered.

Did her timid self come back again or something? I guess this was kind of the thing that was bothering me. It almost seemed like she was meeting me all over again.

"How's it been since we've been gone?" I asked.

"Oh…you know…just stuff…" She returned.

"Hey, um…" I kind of just wanted to get to the point. "…are you okay…? With me, I mean. It seems like you were cool with me the last time I was here after we had talked for a while but now you're back to being…well…shy."

"I'm sorry… It's my fault…" She immediately softly apologized.

"Huh?" I wondered.

"It's just…I didn't know how to react after you did that… And ever since then…I feel embarrassed around you."

"Sorry…" I apologized because I didn't exactly catch on to what I did. "…what did I do again?"

She widened her eyes in surprise, almost in disbelief. "You don't even remember?" She questioned pretty sadly. She turned her head away and proceeded to answer. "You…kissed me…" She said really lowly, but I could still understand every last word.

"O-oohh! That!" I began to feel a little hot myself because now that I thought about it, I was wondering if it was really too fast for her. I mean, I did it in the heat of the moment because I technically already knew her. But as for her… "Yeah…S-sorry…" I rubbed my head, feeling through the strands of my hair.

"C…can…I ask you…something?" Her cheeks began blushing red.

"Y-yeah?" I was a little nervous about what was to come.

"Do…do you…like me…?" She lightly faced me, but her hair covered certain parts of her face, such as her left eye. I was only seeing her right as she awaited my answer.

Uggghh. This was so hard… I mean… Of course I technically liked her. Loved her even. Because she's…well…Fluttershy! But she's not the one I'd get to be with every day. I tried thinking of the best way to explain it, but I decided to give it to her straight…sort of…

"Uh…well you see… It's complicated…" I managed to say.

"…com…plicated…?" She continued resting her eyes delicately on me.

"…you know how we're from another world? Well…yeah…um… There's…there's another…Fluttershy there… She's just like you in every way. I mean, if she were to have come with us, you probably couldn't tell the difference in appearance. So…in order to answer your question… Yeah. I do like you. A lot. But…it comes from the other Fluttershy…you know…?"

"Oh…" Fluttershy seemed a little disappointed, but at the same time, not too disappointed because I technically _did_ like her. "If… If there's another me…then could that mean there's another you…? Here…?"

There would be most likely…if it wasn't for…one thing. "Believe it or not… I was kind of made differently. That in itself is another complicated thing to explain. But because I was made differently, I wouldn't know. This world doesn't have magic like in Equestria…so…"

"Oh…" Fluttershy repeated again, but a little more unhappily.

"But…" I didn't want to end it there. "…you never know. If you _do_ find him." I proceeded to release a relaxed closed-eye smile. "I'm sure you'd love being around him."

Fluttershy's mouth was open a little from surprise, but she soon formed a soft satisfied smile in response to my comment. She nodded lightly.

"Check, one, two. Testing, testing..." We heard Rainbow Dash say into the microphone as we continued smiling at each other. " _Testing...!_ " Her voice suddenly burst through the speakers, leaving an ear-piercing pitch from the feedback.

"S-sorry." Sunset Shimmer apologized and analyzed the technical equipment. "I don't know how to work this thing. Do you?" She asked Starlight.

"Kind of…" Starlight looked at the different levels or whatever they were called. "I think I'm going to find someone who's good with this kind of stuff."

Starlight was just about to walk on ahead until Spike unexpectedly spoke up. "Wait! I'll come with!"

"Spike?" Twilight was surprised herself when Spike offered to go with Starlight all of a sudden. "Why do you want to go with Starlight all of a sudden?"

"Oh…you know…" He chuckled a little nervously. "Just to make sure she doesn't do anything…suspicious."

"Suspicious?" Starlight questioned, crossing her arms in confusion.

"She's alright, Spike." I told him. "She's not like how she used to be before."

"Remember Discord?" Spike asked. "We thought he was all goody two-shoes until he bailed with Tirek!"

Before I could try coming up with something else to actually defend Starlight with, Starlight actually laughed heartily at the manner. "It's fine." She meant with a smile on her face. "If your little puppy really wants to make sure I'm not going to do anything stupid, he can come with me." She looked over to him and kneeled down. "I can carry you if you want."

"Uh…no thanks." He declined as he walked past her. "I'll stay on the ground."

Starlight shrugged. "Whatever you say."

After they walked off, everyone else continued to work on their own thing. Sunset Shimmer turned back around to study the technical equipment.

After playing with her tambourine for a while, Fluttershy finally spoke up to everyone.

"I don't get it. This doesn't make any sense. We were awful. Doesn't anybody else think it's strange that we're the ones that made it to the finals?" Fluttershy spoke back about the gym. Yeah. Something was up with that.

"Very strange." Someone else other than the ones who were supposed to be here answered.

Trixie and her two other bandmates were standing at the side of the stage, appearing jealous and seeking vengeance for not making it to the finals instead.

"What are you doing here, Trixie? Pretty sure the losers are supposed to be up there in the cheap seats." Rainbow took the situation lightly by teasing them.

"The Great and Powerful Trixie is the most talented girl at Canterlot High. It is _I_ who deserves to be in the finals." You don't even talk about your other bandmates? How do they even put up with you? "And I will not..." She took a short pause to snap her fingers. "...be denied!"

One of her bandmates pulled a lever nearby. Then unexpectedly, the floor disappeared below us. I heard a bunch of screams as we all fell down to whatever was below us. As soon as I somewhat recovered from the fall, I looked up to notice Trixie sending a mischievous grin back at us.

"See you never!" Trixie waved as she laughed defiantly.

Then, the doors closed, leaving us almost entirely in darkness.

"Wh-what just happened?!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed in a burst of confusion.

"We were… 'trixed'!" Pinkie Pie answered.

Since there must have been some light seeping through various places, our eyes were able to adjust and be able to fairly see where we were.

"Everyone alright?" I asked. I heard a collection of "Mm-hm" and "Yeah". "So…that just happened…"

"We've gotta get out of here!" Rainbow Dash sounded like she was beginning to panic. "We've got to be up there to play in a few hours!"

"Calm down!" I requested, actually feeling calm myself because I believed there was someone we could count on. "Remember about Starlight and Spike? They went to go look for someone to help us with the technical equipment. It shouldn't be long before they come back and find that we're missing."

"But what if she doesn't find anyone?" Rarity asked, having to cause more insecurity. Just as I was about to answer that with a reasonable response, she continued. "Or what if she does and comes back but is tricked by Trixie too!? Or what if she doesn't find us here, so she goes and searches elsewhere? What if the Sirens get them? WHAT IF WE NEVER GET OUT!?"

"Hey!" I grabbed ahold of her and lightly shook her. She immediately froze when she realized our faces were inches apart. "We'll find a way out. Starlight and Spike give us a cushion to rely on. That doesn't mean we're going to sit here waiting for them without thinking of something ourselves."

"Sure…whatever you say…" Rarity replied weakly.

Afterwards, I let her go and thought to myself out loud. "Okay…what are we going to do…?"

"I found a door!" Applejack shouted out, but seconds later she responded disappointingly. "Aaand…it's locked."

"Yeah." I sort of expected that. "Trixie and her minions probably made sure there was no easy way out for us before she brought us in here." I paced around in a horizontal line as I placed my fist to my chin in thought. "Let's see… What can we do…what can we do…"

"Hey, Alex…" I suddenly heard beside me, surprising me.

I turned and saw Spirit, looking as if she had something to tell me. However, she had just given me a brilliant idea just by appearing out of nowhere. "That's it!"

"…what?!" She asked, being startled herself by my outburst.

"Spirit, remember?" I recalled something back from Equestria. "You can go inside me and come back out, right?"

"You can do that?!" Pinkie Pie excitedly asked for the rest of everyone else and especially herself.

"Y…yeah? So?" Spirit switched glances between all of them and eventually ended with me.

"So…you could technically teleport out of here and open the door for us!" I pointed out.

"B…but I can't just teleport anywhere I want. It has to be somewhere close to you…" She mentioned.

"I'll just stand right next to the door." I easily suggested. "That'll work right?"

"I…I guess so…" Spirit believed.

"Alright, let's get started!" I felt energized. "Just make your way into me and I'll move right next to the door so you can get out!"

"O…okay…" She glanced at everyone else a little nervously but then she closed her eyes and inhaled a deep breath. After she exhaled it out, she seemed to focus herself. She kept her eyes closed for some time, but it didn't seem like she was doing anything. I believed eventually Spirit realized this and slowly opened her eyes. "I… I can't…"

"Huh?!" I asked in shock.

"There's no magic here, Alex." Twilight answered for her. "I think that's why she can't."

"But…she's different, isn't she? She doesn't exactly use magic." I tried to say otherwise.

Twilight shrugged a little sadly. "I think it goes for any kind of magic…well…except our friendship…"

I sighed and pinched between my eyes with my fingers.

"Sorry…" I heard Spirit apologize.

"No, no…" I refrained from hearing her sound like she was doubting herself. "It's not your fault. It was only one idea. We'll come up with another one."

"How about we just break the door down!?" Rainbow Dash offered instantly.

"That door is solid wood, Rainbow Dash." Applejack argued. "There's no way you can break through it without something just as strong."

"I _am_ just as strong!" Rainbow Dash claimed. "No, I'm stronger than this door!" She put her shoulder first and charged straight towards door. However, as soon as she made a connection, she instead was pushed back and made a short cry of pain.

"Stop it, Rainbow!" Applejack ordered.

"Y'know, if all you guys came and helped me, we'd get out of here quicker!" Rainbow Dash stated.

" _No_ , that's a dumb idea!" Applejack countered. "We'd get nowhere and would only hurt ourselves! Even if we did get out of here after, we wouldn't be able to play because we'd break our arms from trying to break open that door. You should just come on back here and wait for Starlight and Spike to come back. _That_ idea makes much more sense."

"And what if they don't just like Rarity said?" Rainbow returned. "It's _us_ that need to be up there playing tonight! If we don't, the Sirens are going to win and probably take over the whole world!" She paused to take in a heavy breath. " _I'm_ going to keep trying to break this down whether any of you help me or not! If anyone finally gets a few brain cells in their head, feel free to come over here at any time!" Rainbow then began to continue her tackles without anyone's approval.

"Ugh…!" Applejack sighed in frustration and shook her head.

"Aren't you going to try to stop her?" Sunset Shimmer worriedly asked.

"Trust me…" Fluttershy answered for Applejack. "When she gets like this, you can't get her to stop."

"Alex, if you get any more bright ideas, we'd love to hear them." Applejack told me. "The sooner we get out of here, the better. Maybe Rainbow Dash won't have to break her arm in trying when there's no point."

Rainbow Dash only ignored Applejack's comment and possibly used it for fuel for the fire she was trying to ignite in her body to create the strength to open the door.

I sighed, wondering if all this negativity was starting to get to me too. "I'll try…"

Honestly, with all the time we had, I couldn't think of anything that had a possibility of working. There weren't many items inside the area we were in, and everything was too solid to be broken. Sort of like how Applejack mentioned, we didn't have any tools that could help us either except our own bodies.

* * *

It didn't help that Starlight and Spike didn't seem to ever come back. And even if they did, they apparently didn't know where we were.

"Ya better believe

I got tricks up my sleeve

And I captivate

'Cause I'm powerful and grea-ea-eat"

I knew time had passed once I started hearing the song come through the floor muffled. Jeez… Were we really stuck in here for hours?

Rainbow Dash had slowed down time from time and even had to take breaks to get her energy back. Nevertheless, I hadn't expected her to keep going after all this time. It wasn't until Applejack finally had enough of all the banging that she spoke up about it.

"Give it up, Rainbow Dash. You've been tryin' at this for hours. It's not gonna open."

Rainbow Dash didn't respond. Maybe she finally realized that Applejack was right as she rubbed her most likely sore arm.

"Maybe it doesn't even matter that we're trapped down here." Twilight unexpectedly mentioned in a disheartened tone. "I don't think the counter-spell would have worked anyway."

"Of course it would have worked, Twilight." Applejack tried to keep her spirits up by placing a hand on her shoulder. "Assumin' a certain band member didn't try to hog the spotlight the whole time we were tryin' to play it!" She faced towards Rainbow Dash.

"Hey!" Rainbow Dash reacted defensively. "If you wanna tell Twilight she's getting a little too caught up trying to be the new leader of this band, you don't have to be all cryptic about it."

Twilight's mouth shook as it looked as if she was about to cry again.

"She was talking about _you_ , Rainbow Dash!" Rarity stepped forward in front of Twilight, whom began to slowly back off.

"Me?! I'm just trying to make sure _my_ band rocks as hard as it needs to!"

" _ **OUR**_ **BAND!** " The rest of them shouted as they corrected her.

"But _why_ wasn't it working?" Twilight had sat down against the wall with her hand to her head. "I did everything I could! I should know what to do. How could I not know what to do? How could I have failed like this?" She proceeded to bury her head in her legs just as Spirit had previously.

"It might've been your idea to _start_ a band, but it's not just _your_ band, Rainbow Dash!" Applejack continued the heated argument between her and Rainbow Dash.

"I'm the one who writes all the songs!" Rainbow fired back.

"I write songs!" Fluttershy passionately shot. "You just never let us play any of them!"

"I had the most perfect outfits for us to wear!" Rarity added into the dispute.

"Again with the costumes!" Applejack reacted. "No one cares what we're wearin'!"

" _I_ care, Applejack!" Rarity fought loudly. "So sorry if I enjoy trying to make a creative contribution to the band!"

"Hey! Anybody here remember fun?!" Pinkie Pie popped furiously in between. "I'LL GIVE YOU A HINT: _It's the_ _ **exact**_ _opposite of being in the Rainbooms!"_

Usually, I tried settling clashes like this, but I was blank at the moment. I didn't really know a lot about this band thing. However, in the middle of their fight, I took a glance at Spirit and noticed something wrong with her. She had a hand to her head and slowly slid against the wall before sitting down. She looked as if she was having a massive headache.

"I wish I never asked any of you to be in my band!" Rainbow Dash desired.

" _I wish I'd never agreed to be in it!_ " Rarity shared louder.

" _Me neither!"_ Fluttershy and Applejack added.

"Shut up! _Shut up!_ _ **Shut up!**_ " Spirit practically screamed at the top of her lungs to plead, but the others didn't listen. They only continued arguing with each of the voices toppling each other's.

I tried to reach out to Spirit, but all of a sudden I felt weak and sick to my stomach. I felt myself kneeling on the floor, almost unable to get up. Was this happening because Spirit was in pain?! I looked up to see her attempting to block out all the noise with her arms as she held her head with her hands.

Soon, everything sounded fuzzy and unclear, especially when I heard the same vocalizing as last time back in the gym.

" _Stop! You have to stop!_ " Sunset Shimmer pleaded next, but they didn't bother listening. She quickly looked around and found a chair turned over on the floor. Knowing not what else to do, she grabbed a hold of the chair and threw it against the door that kept us in here. The impact was loud enough to get everyone's attention, especially those that were arguing. Sunset Shimmer didn't spare any time to think through her words as she needed to tell them something they desperately needed to hear. "This is what they've been after all along! They're feeding off of the magic inside you!"

"How can they be using our magic?" Applejack inquired. "It's the magic of friendship."

Looks like you're anything _but_ friends right now…

Sunset Shimmer, now having their complete attention, took a moment to sigh. "Ever since you started this band, you've been letting little things get to you. I never said anything 'cause I didn't feel like it was my place. Not when I'm so new to this whole 'friendship' thing. I still have a lot to learn. But I _do_ know that if you don't work out even the smallest problems right at the start, the magic of friendship can be turned into something else."

I saw Spirit slowly regaining her sanity as all the loud noise dissipated into the air. I myself felt the former tension inside unwind.

Twilight managed to stand back up and join Sunset Shimmer. "I can't believe all this tension was happening right under my nose and I didn't realize it. I'm supposed to be the one with all the answers. And all I've done since I got here is let you down."

Sunset Shimmer looked reluctant at first, but then she decided to rest a warm hand on Twilight's shoulder. "I don't think anyone is supposed to have _all_ the answers. But you _can_ count on your friends to help you find them." She presented a hand towards the others.

Twilight closed her eyes for a moment and suddenly opened them wide the next. "I think you already have." She presented a grin of assurance. "C'mon!" Twilight raced over to Spirit and me to help us up. "We need to get out of here!" She pointed at the door and then suddenly charged towards it.

Forgetting about what Applejack mentioned before, all of the others, including Applejack herself, ran towards the door and proceeded to help her push her way out. Unfortunately, it seemed they allowed their brightened spirits to forget the fact that the door was solid wood, so they were pushed back from the force. Nevertheless, the door unexpectedly easily opened.

Two friends we were completely glad to see were standing right there in front of us.

"Spike!" Twilight called out.

"Starlight!" I called as well.

"Sorry we took so long." Spike apologized for the wait. "First of all, we had to find someone who wasn't under the sirens' spell to help us with the tech stuff. Second, we didn't even know you all were stuck here in the first place until we heard this loud bickering!"

"It was that first one that took the longest." Starlight mentioned. "If we'd known you were in trouble, we would have come back as soon as possible."

"Yo, yo. We gonna do this or what?!" The person that they had went to go get stepped in and revealed herself.

It was Vinyl Scratch. Of course…

"Why isn't she under their spell…?" Twilight asked.

"Never took off her headphones." Spike amusingly answered.

"I didn't even know everybody was under a 'spell'." She shrugged embarrassingly.

"Doesn't matter!" Applejack responded, reinvigorated with hope. "Time to prove we've still got the magic of friendship inside us!"

"And there's only one way to do it!" Twilight said.

"We're getting the band back together?" Pinkie Pie asked excitedly.

"We're getting _our_ band back together!" Rainbow Dash happily corrected.

"Whee!" Pinkie cheered.

"Ooh, then what's the counter-spell we are going to play?" Rarity questioned.

"I don't think it matters _what_ song we play, as long as we play it together as friends!" Twilight confidently answered.

"I know just the song!" Rainbow Dash returned, catching some looks as she walked over to Fluttershy. "Fluttershy's written a really great one."

Fluttershy immediately formed a face of glee when she finally received the chance to play her song.

"We're about to save the world here. Personally, I think we should do it in style. Rarity?" Applejack finally agreed with the idea of dressing up.

"I thought you'd never ask!" Rarity pulled the portable clothes rack out of nowhere. I guess she must had brought them along and they fell with us inside.

"Alright, alright." Starlight tried to speed up the scene. "Do whatever you need to do, just get your butts out there quick! I don't know how much time we have before we're too late." She began leaving before I stopped her.

"What are you going to do, Starlight?" I asked.

"I'm gonna go ahead with our new friend here and get the equipment we'll need." She responded with a smug smirk.

"I'll get the car!" Vinyl Scratch held up a couple of keys and jogged out, leading Starlight along with her.

"Well…let's hurry and get with the costumes?" I slightly shrugged over to Rarity's direction.

"Oohh…I have something special for _you_!" Rarity mentioned to me a little oddly.

I wonder if I should be scared of what she means by that…

* * *

The Dazzlings continued vocalizing for the crowd just as we arrived with our instruments where we were supposed to meet with Starlight and Vinyl. We had all changed into the new costumes Rarity had for us, so we were all wearing something new. Well…sort of for me. Rarity kind of did an upgraded or improved version of my hoodie, but either way, I had to admit I really loved it.

Nevertheless, we pretty far away from the Dazzlings, prompting the first question in Rainbow Dash.

"How are we supposed to play over them from up here?"

We were surprised to hear honking nearby. We looked over to see Starlight and Vinyl move towards us in a huge vehicle. Vinyl stopped the vehicle and pressed a button on her phone. We were all flabbergasted to suddenly see the vehicle heavily modify itself to where it eventually became a powerhouse speaker! Just like Vinyl!

"I had something else in mind when you were bringing your car…!" Sunset Shimmer commented on the scene.

Despite that, the Rainbooms were cheering with full effort at the sight of it.

"Feel the wave of sound

As it crashes down…" I heard the Dazzlings sing, having me bring up the plan to subject.

"So, what are we going to do?" I asked.

"What are you talking about?" Starlight answered my question with a smirk. "Play!"

"We will be adored

Tell us that you want us

We won't be ignored

It's time for our reward" I turned to see the Dazzlings continue. Except this time, their necklaces were glowing brightly red. From this, they suddenly started…evolving! They obtained pony ears and ponytails on their hair just like the girls had when they activated their magic. Only this time…wings that must have belonged to the sirens appeared behind their back!

"Now you need us

Come and heed us

Nothing can stop us now!"

"Hit it, Pinkie!" Rainbow Dash broadcasted.

Pinkie Pie smashed onto the drums that were set up in front of the car, opening way for our tune.

"Oh-oh, oh-whoa-oh" They all sang.

"I've got the music in me

Oh-oh, oh-whoa-oh" We certainly got their attention as we loudly interrupted their performance. As soon as we had started, I immediately felt myself lose control of my playing in a good way. It was as if my heart made its way into my hands and took over. I even felt I was playing better than usual!

"Don't need to hear a crowd

Cheering out my name" Twilight began after a short solo from Rainbow Dash.

"I didn't come here seeking

Infamy or fame"

"The one and only thing" The rest joined in for a harmonic concert.

"That I am here to bring

Is music, is the music

Is the music in my soul

Gonna break out (Out!)" As soon as they shouted that out together, everyone began morphing with our magic, including me.

"Set myself free, yeah

Let it all go (Go!)

Just let it be, yeah

Find the music in your heart

Let the music make you start

To set yourself apart!"

"So the Rainbooms want to turn this into a _real_ Battle of the Bands?" The leader at the stage asked unfazed. "Then let's battle!"

"What we have in store (ah-ah)

All we want and more (ah-ah)

We will break on through (ah-ah)

Now it's time to finish you!"

Her eyes turned demonically red as her necklace spiritually connected with the others. Out of a bright red flash, we saw the _real_ sirens release from each of their necklaces. We all stood there in awe, possibly not expecting this to happen at all. As they swiftly came towards us and circled us around, I couldn't tell who was in control of these sirens. Was it those girls?! Or did these sirens have minds of their own?!

"Keep playing!" Starlight shouted out loud.

Pinkie Pie started a melody with her drums, having us follow in after. Using Vinyl's giant speakers, we were able to somewhat defend ourselves from these sirens with our music. Each one of the girls played their entire heart, leaving Twilight in an attempt to finish it off with a loud and broad vocal note.

However, their leader wasn't taking it. Instead, she deflected Twilight's note and pushed her back with her very own. Hoping I could help Twilight, I stepped in by her side in an effort to combine our notes. Before we could try, the three sirens gathered together and literally drove us back with their combined strength. The force of their voices were so strong, we couldn't even continue playing our instruments.

I tried to fight back, positioning my fingers on the strings and bringing up my bow to play. But the force was too strong. It was like trying to move again a heavy snowstorm. Eventually my violin was forced out of my hand, wounding the fingers that were on the strings. I cried out lightly, but even the sirens' voices went over that.

I wasn't the only one with the instrument knocked out of my hand. As soon as Twilight's microphone flew out and landed on the ground behind us, everything grew immensely quiet. I took a glance at my fingers to see blood begin to trickle out. I looked back to see the location of Twilight's microphone…and surprisingly, it was right near Sunset Shimmer's feet.

She only stared at it, appearing as if she was too scared to touch it.

"Sunset Shimmer, we need you!" Twilight cried for her help.

"I…ah…" Sunset Shimmer seemed to be unable to move, continuing only to coldly stare at the microphone.

"Sunset!" I tried talking to her, holding the wrist of my wounded hand with the other. "This is your chance! This is the moment you've been waiting for! The chance to show and prove to everyone here at this school who you _really_ are!"

Sunset seemed to be affected by my words, but it wasn't me that dealt the final blow.

"Shimmy…" Another voice I had not expected suddenly called out to her. Sunset Shimmer turned to see Starlight was the one who called her by that name. She jumped out of the car and picked up the microphone on the ground. "You didn't forget…did you…?" I watched Starlight as she seemed to be working into talking sense to her. For the first time…Starlight didn't have a 'bored' or 'unamused' expression. She even lost her 'coldly cool' attitude! She was speaking with furrowed eyebrows as if retrieving something treasured in her heart. "Remember right before our performance at the show? You got stage fright… And this moment is just like back then." Starlight paused to see Sunset Shimmer astonished at her reminisce.

"Star…" Sunset could only say.

"Remember our chant?" Starlight asked. "The one we sang that gave us the courage to go out there and show everyone what we were made of." Starlight raised a fist, mentioning to her that she had the strength to overcome this fear. Inside this fist…was the microphone.

Sunset Shimmer continued staring at Starlight in somewhat disbelief until she closed her eyes and reopened them into determined ones. She grabbed ahold of the microphone Starlight held for her and stepped forward in front of Twilight. There, she took off her jacket and carelessly threw it to the ground.

"Hit it, Star." Sunset instructed.

Starlight looked proud of the moment and then directed Vinyl to start.

As a drum solo began, Sunset Shimmer took the very opportunity she had to show what she was made of.

"You're never gonna bring me down

You're never gonna break this part of me

My friends are here to bring me 'round" Sunset Shimmer helped both me and Twilight up.

"Not singing just for popularity!"

"We're here to let you know

That we won't let it go" Sunset Shimmer and Twilight sang, even having me join them to support the cause.

"Our music is a bomb and it's about to blow" Starlight grabbed ahold of my violin and bow and tossed them over to me.

"And you can try to fight" I positioned the violin correctly

"But we have got the light of" I placed the bow over the strings and my bloodied fingers on the frets.

"Friendship on our side!" Every single person joined in harmony.

"Got the music in our hearts

We're here to blow this thing apart!" An enormous rainbow shot out from our side, preventing the sirens the opportunity to attack. Immediately after, they appeared to have lost significant power.

"And together, we will never

Be afraid of the dark"

Surprisingly, Sunset Shimmer was lifted into the air! No way! She's evolving along with us too!

"Here to sing our song out loud

Get you dancing with the crowd

As the music of our friendship

Survives, survives!" Sunset Shimmer proudly obtained her ears and tail. Soon after, we were all brought together and lifted up.

"Got the music in our hearts

We're here to blow this thing apart!" The girls repeated with more power and significance to their words.

As they continued to sing passionately, I heard another voice call out to me.

"Alex!"

I looked up to see Spirit upside down and facing me. She was being lifted up even higher than the others and didn't seem to be stopping. With a bright and cheerful smile to her face, she grabbed ahold of my hand and brought me up along with her. I accidentally released the violin and bow, but Starlight smugly caught them both for me. As I felt my damaged hand heal, I continued moving upwards with a giggling Spirit along the rainbow.

"And together, we will never

Be afraid of the dark"

Spiritually, in the clouds, I felt myself connect deeply together with Spirit. In this bright burst of light, we suddenly became this huge ghostly Alicorn of light that emerged from the clouds!

"Here to sing our song out loud

Get you dancing with the crowd!" The entire school joined with the song, shocking the sirens.

But they even grew more terrified once they saw Spirit and I staring at them from the clouds.

"As the music of our friendship

Survives, survives!"

We motioned and waved our hooves in the air before we shot out a big burst of not only just _magic_ but light of the rainbow! This ray shattered the sirens that appeared before the girls and soon the necklaces they wore.

After that immense attack, I soon found myself feeling light-headed back on the ground.

"Ugh…" I expressed until I heard some really horrible and off-key singing from the stage.

"We will be adored

Tell us that you want us

We won't be ignored…"

An entire collective amount of boos came from the audience at the seats in front of the stage.

"It's time…for…our reward..." The volume of their lyrics came to a low point even quieter than Fluttershy. However, they were immediately interrupted by thrown food and refreshments, causing them to run off in fear.

I noticed Spirit had recovered next to me. She looked my way and smiled. It seemed whatever was worrying her before was completely off her mind. She raised a fist and waited for my move. Realizing what she was doing, I smiled as well and pounded my fist into hers. She grinned cheerfully and suddenly attacked me with a hug.

* * *

We regrouped with Sunset Shimmer and the others back on the stage where the sirens fled.

Sunset Shimmer picked up a broken piece of the necklace from the shards they left behind. "Guess that explains why these were so special to them."

"Without those pendants and the magic you brought here from Equestria, they're just three harmless teenage girls." Twilight observed.

Sunset Shimmer sent a cheerful smile of her own back to Twilight and then turned to Starlight. "Star… You really remembered?"

"Course I did…" Starlight crossed her arms with a warm and modest expression. "How could I forget something so important? After all…you were the only pony that helped me get through my toughest times. That's why… It was so hard when you left just like that…" Starlight actually frowned and uncrossed her arms. The frown itself was an extremely rare occurrence.

"Star… I'm so sorry…" Sunset Shimmer apologized deeply. "I never got to tell you why… Could you ever forgive me for that?"

"There's no way I could stay mad at my best friend." Starlight returned a relieved smile. "But you have to promise you'll tell me all about it."

"I promise!" Sunset Shimmer excitedly agreed.

Then, it was very warming to see the both of them hug it out.

It wasn't until Trixie came along to ruin it. "You may have vanquished the Dazzlings, but you will never have the amazing, show-stopping ability of the Great and Powerful Trixie!" She shared only what she had to share and immediately vanished with her cloud of smoke.

After all the coughing, Pinkie Pie proceeded to cry out in horror once more. "She's gone!" However, she paused and took a second look. "Oh, wait. There she is." She spotted her climbing over the wall near the crowds. But she lost her balance and fell over instead.

"Trixie's okay!" Trixie herself confirmed.

"You know, Twilight is going back to Equestria soon." Rainbow Dash mentioned to Sunset Shimmer. "The Rainbooms could really use someone to help Fluttershy on backup vocals."

Sunset Shimmer spotted a nearby guitar and grabbed ahold of it to unexpectedly play wildly. After her little riff, she stood innocently with her hands behind her back. "I also play guitar."

After taking a little time to recover from their gaping jaws, Rainbow Dash returned an accepting smile. "We'll see."

Then, every one of the girls in the band gathered together for a great big group hug. Even Spike joined in as well.

"I have to admit…" Starlight began as she, Spirit, and I enjoyed the scene. "I can see why you love your friends so much."

"Hah." I laughed. "You should be around the ones I'm with at home. I think they're even crazier…"

"Oh! I almost forgot!" Pinkie Pie suddenly exclaimed. "There's that carnival we were supposed to go to after the musical showcase, but since everyone was so hung up with the Battle of the Bands, I almost completely forgot about it!"

"No way! Really?" Spirit surprisingly asked in excitement.

"Yeah! That's probably where they all went." Pinkie Pie pointed out towards the crowd…except there wasn't a crowd anymore. They had all left already.

"Wow…" I could only say in amazement of the time it took for them to clear out.

"Alex, we should totally go!" Spirit grabbed ahold of my hand and looked at me with exhilaration in her eyes.

I would have gone anyway, but seeing the look on her face, there was no way I could possibly turn it down. "Yeah, of course!" I agreed with a bright smile.

Starlight, on the other hand, yawned. "I think I might want to head back on home."

"Aw, come on, Star." Sunset Shimmer told her with a lightly begging smile. "Can't you stay? You know, for old time's sake? We can…catch up."

Starlight sent an appreciative beam towards Sunset Shimmer and soon agreed. "Yeeah, sure. I'm used to sleeping late anyway."

Everyone else cheered, and all of us soon dashed out of there.

* * *

I was surprised to see how lively the carnival was already despite what happened. I guess everyone must have completely forgotten or have been unaware how they were under a spell in the first place. Either way, everyone there seemed to be enjoying the time, and it was time we'd enjoy it too.

To go on all the rides we wanted to see, we split up in parties of two. Had I not been with Spirit, I would have definitely gone with Fluttershy and Twilight. However, seeing as I had hardly spoken with Spirit during the trip here, she deserved to be with me. After all, she's pretty much mentioned or hinted before how I'm really the only person she trusts. I suppose she still needs to warm up to the others…

Nevertheless, the other groups were Applejack and Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie and Rarity, and of course Starlight and Sunset Shimmer. Just knowing their long lost friendship was being repaired and strengthened even more than before was warming to feel.

We decided that we would spent an amount of time in the carnivals with these groups and later on would all regroup to enjoy the bigger rides. When Spirit found out that I'd be spending that entire amount of time with her, she was overwhelmed with joy. But she didn't spend any time expressing that joy. Instead, she only grabbed my hand and dragged me out of there.

The first place she took me to was the enormous rollercoaster that the whole carnival could see. She didn't hesitate taking me to the cart and sitting me with her at the very front. She looked totally excited, but I for one felt differently…

"Uh…Spirit… I'm not so good with rollercoasters…" I tried to tell her without crying.

"Don't be such a wuss!" She teased. "Don't you love the rush?"

As I felt the bars close in front of us and settle us in, I began crying in the inside. "No…." I fearfully responded as I slowly shook my head.

Of course, the cart began moving along and eventually began ascending up to a big hill.

"Why'd you bring me here?" I almost tearfully asked. "I hate rollercoasters!"

"How can you hate something you've never gone on?" She knew so much about me.

"Well, I'm pretty sure I've dropped from heights enough to hate the rushing feeling in my heart. Rollercoasters are so uncontrollable!" I stated as I tried to think of a way out, but I should have known that there'd be no way.

Spirit placed her hand on mine and lightly held it. Giving me a sincere smile, she tried to calm me down. "Don't worry. Nothing's going to happen to you. Just watch me enjoying it, you'll see so yourself!"

I inhaled and exhaled a heavy breath. "I don't think it's easy as that…" I said until I looked forward and noticed we were just at the tip of the iceberg. My eyes widened as I began to feel the rollercoaster tip forward to its ultimate demise.

"Here we go!" Spirit exclaimed in exhilaration.

" _Crrrrrrrrrrrrrrrraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa_ …!" I screamed out, waiting for my inevitable death.

I was pretty shaken up throughout the entire ride. I didn't know what Spirit was talking about at all. While she was screaming in delight the whole time, I was cowering in terror. I had tried closing my eyes to see if that helped…but not so much.

She had to sort of drag me out of there since I was too weak to walk out myself. Nevertheless, she decided to treat me to cotton candy in hopes to feel better. Taking it slow afterwards, we stopped by several other stalls with small games and entertainment. It was finally until we stopped by a photo booth. Spirit gasped in astonishment and ran in there, having me trail behind like always.

It seemed she was trying to figure out the controls as I made my way in there.

"You want a picture?" I asked for clarification.

"Of course!" She responded excitedly as she messed with the buttons. The two of us sat inside with the curtains beside us covering the booth. "Look! There we are!" She pointed obviously, as if she was a little kid. It looked like there was already a camera capturing us, so we appeared in another screen in front of us. "Looks like you can add borders and stuff."

"Don't choose something over the top." I asked of gently, hoping she wouldn't go too far.

"No. I think this is the best." She decided and allowed me to preview it on the screen. It was just us.

"You didn't select anything." I mentioned.

"Exactly!" With a flip of her finger, she pressed a button in front of us and smiled lightly.

I had no idea she had pressed the button to take the picture, so after the camera snapped the photo, I came out in it looking surprised. Spirit noticed this and laughed. "You didn't smile!"

"…I didn't know…" I tried to excuse myself out of embarrassment.

"Okay then." She accepted. "I'm about to press the button then. Say _cheeeese_!"

To the best of my abilities, I sort of forced out a bright smile just as she did. After all, the quicker you had to prepare for a photo, the harder it was to smile naturally. Either way, the two of us grinned widely with shut eyes as we heard the click of the camera.

Spirit only laughed in reaction to the next photo. I wasn't so sure if I wanted to keep taking pictures…

"Hey…" The tone of her voice suddenly changed.

"Huh?" I replied.

"The truth is… I'm you and Fluttershy's daughter from the future."

"Ehh?!" I reacted in utter confusion.

There was another click. And then she suddenly burst out laughing.

"That's a keeper!" She exclaimed in delight.

She picked up the photos we took and began walking out, having me stick close to her like glue. Why the heck did she say that all of a sudden?

"What was that all about?" I asked her about as I followed her around.

"Pictures." She briefly stated while holding up the ones we took.

"Ugh…" I felt a little let down since she wasn't giving me an answer. "You were just joking, right?"

"I don't know. _Maaybe_." She poised herself as if she could just skip the rest of the way.

"Spirit, please." I placed a hand on her and spoke in a more serious tone. "It's these kind of things that I don't like you to joke about."

My tone and touch voluntarily stopped and caused her to turn around and face me. She was no longer looking merry and she even appeared to have become serious as me. "Chill, Alex…" She responded. "I'm sorry. I was just joking."

I sighed and leaned over to place my head on her shoulder in relief. "Okay. I can never know with you, you know? After all, you and I kind of…aren't like anyone else."

"Tell me about it…" She muttered.

The thing is… I think inside me…it was possible for her to really be what she joked about. After all, she was someone from inside me. Someone that controlled the light. But she was never really truly born was she? She comes from me… So in that case…wouldn't it technically be possible if she…

Nah. No. That wouldn't make her that. It's more like she's a manifestation of me, right? I don't even know anymore. Really, for all this time, I've been taking it like she's just been another friend. But when she says things like this time, it just makes me want to question her true identity…

Eventually, we came across Twilight and Fluttershy while walking in the middle of the carnival. Fluttershy was adorably holding a cone of cotton candy.

"Hey! Alex! Spirit!" Twilight greeted us.

"Hey, Twilight. Fluttershy." I welcomed.

"Hey." Spirit joined in, offering a small smile this time.

"You finished yet? We were just about to regroup so we can get on the Ferris wheel!" Twilight mentioned.

"Oh really?" I answered and then turned to Spirit. "Is that okay?"

"Yeah." She nodded while holding her hands behind her back.

"Great. Why don't you guys come with us?" Twilight invited.

We accepted their invitation and followed them to the Ferris wheel. I suppose, besides the rollercoaster, it was one of the biggest things in the area, so it was fairly easy to regroup and find one another by that. As we came across the rest of the entire group, I took a glance at everyone's faces. I wanted to see how their time together seemed to be treating them. It was nice to see them all having a good time, but it was more important to take a look at Sunset Shimmer and Starlight. As I noticed them speaking with each other and laughing, it was warming to the heart to see a bond stay strong.

We were all going to go on the ride at the same time. However…there was a slight problem. One cart couldn't fit us all in. There was no way. Each cart seemed to only fit a maximum of six people, but I honestly figured it wouldn't be much of a problem to solve. I decided Twilight, Fluttershy, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and even Spike, since he's a dog, can fit onto one cart.

Sunset Shimmer and Starlight could fit with us, but I'm pretty sure it'd be much better if they had a cart to themselves. After all, I think Sunset Shimmer still had a few things she promised to tell Starlight. Being in the Ferris wheel would be the best time to tell her before we left back home.

After they had all boarded their carts, leaving only two of us left, Spirit looked slightly confused. "You didn't want to go with any of them?" She asked.

"Sure." I answered as I looked at the wheel for the next cart to stop by. "But, I think it'd be just as fun with you."

"You don't just feel sorry for me, do you…?" Spirit didn't seem to quite believe that.

"Hey." I returned. "We'll be leaving back home soon. We should make the most of it."

"Exactly…" Spirit muttered before the next cart came to a stop.

I didn't answer but only led Spirit into the cart. Once we were both safely on in, the ride continued. In the first few minutes, we were pretty silent as we observed the scenery around us. People grew smaller and the whole world was expanded for us. After all, this was a world we hadn't fully explored yet, and I doubt we really ever will. But when you really thought about it, it was intriguing to be able to see much more of this new world on the Ferris wheel we were on.

"Alex…" Spirit suddenly called softly.

"Hm?" I turned to her.

"Thanks…" She expressed.

"For what?"

"For being here with me. I know you didn't have to but you did."

I tried thinking up of an acceptable response. "Well… You know… Don't ever think you're just a bother or not a friend like the others are. You're just as important to me."

Spirit smiled gently and then turned away lightly. "Hey…"

"Yeah?"

"Back when I said that I was you and Fluttershy's daughter… I'm totally not, of course, but if I was really serious about that… Would you believe me?" She asked quite unexpectedly.

"Would I believe you…?" The question itself was a bit hard to dissolve much less answer. "Well… To be honest, if you really meant it…a part of me would want to believe you because of what you mean to me. But I don't think my head could accept it. It just wouldn't make sense."

"Oh… Okay!" She sounded a big gloomy at the beginning, but then she smiled cheerfully at the end. She turned away to observe the environment on the other side of the cart as she held her hands together between her legs.

After a moment, something suddenly shot up towards the sky and exploded. A firework… After the leader, more flew up and burst into different colors and shapes. Of course, the first one was enough to catch Spirit's attention. I wondered if these fireworks were scheduled for midnight as they usually were. As the rest followed their scheduled arrangement, Spirit's eyes reflected each and every color. And to see someone have two different colors of eyes instead of one, this was quite interesting to catch. It wasn't anything too fascinating… It was just…nice to observe.

Spirit caught my unintentional stare and reacted a little embarrassingly. She jumped a little and turned her head away. "What?"

"Don't think this is cheesy, but…" I placed the palm of my hand under my chin to rest my head. "…I honestly think you have beautiful eyes. And to be quite frank, you shouldn't even be sensitive about them. I know people might feel…differently about it just because you're not 'normal' but…you should be proud. Having the eyes you have now…just makes you more unique and likeable." I grinned both warmly and cheerfully.

It was Spirit's turn as she now kept her eyes still on me. Her mouth was agape as if she was deeply surprised. A few tears sparkled at the corner of each eye, having the reflections on both her eyes appear a lot shinier and brighter. "I…" She tried to say something but paused. She sniffed a bit and used her arm to lightly wipe her eyes. Then, she burst out this huge beam and proceeded to finish her sentence. "I love you, Alex."

My body shook and shivered from surprise. "Y-you don't… You don't mean that in a romantic kind of way, right…?" I asked fairly quickly. I was kind of hoping she didn't… I mean…how would it even…?

"What?" She asked, losing her smile. Then, when she realized what she heard correctly from me, she sort of became upset. She frowned, crossed her arms, and turned away. "Of course not!" She mentioned clearly. "Jeez, way to ruin the mood."

"Sorry…" I apologized immediately. "It's just…ever since Rarity…I'm kind of scared when I hear that for the first time from someone." I told her honestly.

Spirit didn't reply. I continued looking at her for an answer. I even slightly leaned to the side to see if I could have a better view of her face. It wasn't until I heard more sniffles and shaking shoulders to where I got an idea. All of a sudden, the proof escaped from her lips. She was crying.

"Spirit?" I called out in gentle concern. "Why are you crying? I said I'm sorry."

"It's not that…" She tried to regain control of her speech. She continued to sniff and tried to wipe her endless tears. "I'm just…so happy…" She said. "…but sad at the same time…"

"…sad?" I repeated. I could understand the happy part…but sad? Why would she be sad?

"It's okay…" She assured. "I guess I just…go through this sometimes." She waited a bit until she calmed down and regained more control of herself. "Thanks a lot." She told me as she turned back to face me. There she regained her signature smile. "Thank you very much being with me like this. I had a lot of fun with you…"

I returned another smile and turned my head over the cart to see below. We were about to complete our round. "Guess we'll be going home pretty soon."

Spirit yawned a little. "Yeah… I guess I'm tired anyway."

"Hm…" I thought. "I wonder when the next time we'll be back here again is…"

* * *

We regrouped back at the portal once we were finished at the carnival. Twilight and I shared hugs with those that we would be leaving for now. After a moment of some reminiscing, I supposed we were getting ready to walk back through.

"Sure wish you could stay longer." Applejack shared.

"Me too." Twilight answered. "But we have responsibilities in Equestria that we have to get back to." She glanced over to me, seeing as we were pretty much stuck together. "Its citizens need us. But now we can go through the portal whenever we need to." She paused. "This isn't goodbye. It's just goodbye 'til next time." She clarified.

Sunset Shimmer understood with crossed arms as she smiled and nodded. She turned to Starlight. "It was great seeing you, Star. I wished things could have gone better in the past but…" She paused, rubbed her head, and then looked at me. "…I guess what matters is the present…right?"

"Don't let it get to you, Shimmy." Starlight responded with a calm smile. "Things are really starting to look up, aren't they?"

"Yeah." Sunset agreed with a grin and turned back to me. "Thanks for everything. Especially with…bringing back Starlight."

"Of course…!" I answered a little embarrassingly.

Surprisingly, Starlight placed an arm around me. "Yeah, he's something, isn't he?"

"Heh…sure…" Despite it all being a group of friends, I still didn't feel too comfortable under the spotlight like this.

"There's something else that's been kind of bothering me too…" Sunset Shimmer brought up all of a sudden. She looked in the direction of Spirit. "Hey… I know we didn't really talk this whole time…but…" She seemed she wanted to say something, but she paused as she placed a few fingers to her lips.

"But what?" Spirit wondered, looking at Sunset Shimmer curiously with her hands behind her back.

"It just feels…like I've seen you before. But that can't be, right? This is the first time you've been here." Sunset shared her thoughts.

"Hey…" Applejack rubbed her chin. "Now that you mention it… I also feel like I've seen you around before…"

Spirit could only shrug. "I'm sorry. I don't know what makes you think that. I've really never been here before."

"Okay." Sunset Shimmer understood. "But for some other reason…There's this strange feeling inside of me. I don't know if it's because of what I did before…but…I feel like I need to apologize to you too."

"W-what?!" Spirit reacted pretty embarrassingly. "No, no! You don't have to apologize for anything!"

"Well, whatever you say… I'm going to anyway." She took a moment of silence before she did. "I'm really sorry."

"Th-that's okay." Spirit looked bashful since she didn't know how to handle the situation. "I accept your apology…even though I have no idea what you did because you couldn't have possibly done anything personally to me."

I took the moment to laugh a little before I decided we should most likely get ready for bed. "We should probably get going now." I pointed a thumb backwards to the portal.

"…oh! Wait!" I heard someone unexpectedly come out from the group in front of us. Fluttershy raced towards me and stood politely. With both hands held together in front of her waist, she smiled lightly and bowed, as if giving me a special form of thanks. Then, she leaned closer to me and unexpectedly kissed me on the cheek. "Goodbye." She calmly stated.

"Bye…" I felt a bit paralyzed… I suppose it was her…sudden change of behavior?

"Alright, come on. Let's go." Starlight grabbed the top of my clothing and began dragging me out of there.

Our friends at Canterlot High only laughed to themselves and waved farewell. Spirit, Twilight, and Spike followed in after us.

* * *

Back home, I supposed everypony was asleep, so no one was there waiting for us.

I heard Starlight yawn loudly and carelessly. "Well, see you another time." She said without spending a lengthy time for goodbye. She was going to be near anyway…

"Yeah… Night…" I said, having her shortly wave back before she made her way out of the castle. I turned to Twilight and Spike. "You guys going to bed too?" I asked.

"Yeah…" Twilight mentioned a little sleepily. "We've been up a pretty long time while fighting three crazy sirens. I think sleep will do us really good."

" _You_ said it." Spike couldn't agree more.

"What about you?" She asked me.

I thought about it. Actually, there was somewhere I kind of wanted to stop by before I headed off to sleep… "I think I'll just make a quick stop before bed."

"Welp." Twilight stretched for a bit. "See you tomorrow!"

"Goodnight." I told her as she began walking off with a smile.

That stop I was going to make, it had to do with the violin. I gave a quick search around me, but I didn't see the case. Wait… I didn't leave it behind, did I?

"Looking for something?" I heard nearby.

I turned to find Spirit. Of course… "Yeah, thanks." I expressed as I noticed her place the case down on the ground for me to grab.

"I've got your back." She returned cheerfully as I used my magic to hold the case up. "Can I trust you to stay safe while I rest up?" She joked as she shared a mischievous expression at me.

"Yeah, yeah." I nodded as I laughed a little.

Afterwards, she closed her eyes and gave one last hearty grin. "See you."

Then, she disappeared with a trail of light.

* * *

I stood waiting outside Octavia's house after I had knocked. I felt a little bad since I figured she'd be asleep by this time, but I couldn't wait to see her. The door opened and she slowly and tiredly came out. Yes, it sure did look like she had been asleep.

"Alex?" She asked as she rubbed her eyes. "What are you doing here so late?"

"I came by to thank you." I answered.

"For what?"

"You helped me play a pretty big part." I held the violin case in front of her.

"The violin I gave you…?" Octavia figured after analyzing it for a moment.

"I played, Tavi." I told her as I expressed a short sweet smile. "I played my heart out."

"Th-that's great…" It didn't seem Octavia could get too excited even if she wanted to. She appeared to still be a bit drained, but I wasn't going to keep her for long. "Can I hear a little something?" It seemed she wanted to see how I progressed.

"Hm…" I tapped my chin in thought. "Maybe another time. I should really let you sleep. Besides…" I opened the case and brought out the violin for her to see. "I kind of need to clean it a bit." I presented with a nervous smile.

"Is…" She opened her eyes widely as she begun to take a closer look at the strings portion of the violin. "Is that…blood…?!"

"Yeah…" I felt like I could have blushed to the point of embarrassment.

* * *

Sometime after that night, Twilight came to me with a book. It was the same book we had received the first message from Sunset Shimmer. However, she told me there was a message for me. Curiously, I accepted the book as she went on to do her daily activities, and I searched for this message I had received.

I came across the words: Dear, Prince Alex.

 _Just like I had written to your partner in royalty, Princess Twilight, I'm missing the both of you already. I hope you'll come back soon, and if Starlight isn't busy, it'd be great if she came too. I'm really happy to tell you that…things surely are looking up for me here. People aren't afraid of me anymore. Heck, they even come to my help when they need it. I can't tell you how happy I am and…I don't know if thanking you is enough. Seriously. I think you played a big part in turning me around. All of you did. You, Twilight, and Starlight… I don't know what else to say… If there's anything I can do in return, please, don't hesitate to ask. At the same time, I hope you don't mind if I write to you or Twilight for advice. After all, I think I still have a lot to learn about friendship. Anyways…really hope to see you soon._

 _Your friend, Sunset Shimmer._

I closed the book and felt as if my heart was near a cozy fireplace. It didn't seem Twilight had written a message to her back yet, so I decided to wait until we would both be free and write a message together.

For the time being, I took the book with me to a table and sat down. There, I just wanted to take a moment to think to myself. I suppose I just wanted to summarize everything that had happened. It was a lot to take in, but in the end, I had a good feeling it was all for the better.

 _Friends, you are in my life_

 _And you can count on me to be there by your side_

Huh?

 _And when the music comes alive_

 _We sing our songs to lift us up so we can shine_

I began hearing another strange tune in my mind.

 _And the sound that we hear in our hearts_

 _Makes a crescendo_

Despite the circumstances, I let it play peacefully. It was weird… It wasn't like I was completely hearing voices in my mind. No. It was more like I was hearing these words come back up from within. And after the second adventure back in their world, I knew the very people that sang these lyrics.

 _And the light that ignites in the dark_

 _It makes us all glow_

They seemed as harmonious as ever…

The Rainbooms…

 _And shine like rainbows_

 _We shine like rainbows…_


	4. Epilogue

"No doubt about it, Spike. There's definitely something strange going on at that school..." I heard her say in the pit of her secret lab after I managed to slip in to see what she was up to. The two of us had been looking all over the school for her. Her dog barked in response as if he knew the words that came out of her mouth.

"Is this what you've been doing all day?" I asked, surprising both her and Spike.

Twilight removed the glasses from her face to converse with me. "Why did you come here?" She asked.

"I… Well…" I felt reluctant to give her my reason. At one point, I had felt that I should just man up and tell her what was going on…but then I eventually chickened out and made it casual. "We were wondering if you wanted to come get ice cream with us. After all, you seem to spend all your time in here or on your own. We just wanted to get you out is all."

The girl who accompanied and stood beside me gave me a leer look in response to my cowardice, but eventually she seemed to understand why I said what I said.

"No thanks." Twilight shook her head, disappointing me. "I'll have to pass. Maybe some other time. I really need to focus on this right now." She returned to whatever work she was doing with the cork board in front of her. It was loaded with pinned photographs and well…graphs.

I was let down by her answer, but I guess it didn't hurt as much as last time. It wasn't the first time she declined an offer like this. "Okay, I guess. See you later then…"

I was tagged along as I made my way outside and walked to the pole where my bike was stationed. "Ready to go?" I asked my companion by my side before I got on.

"Yeah, sure." She answered a little softer as if she seemed sort of upset. It was probably because of the results I got after going inside and trying my best.

I pulled my leg around the seat and sat down. She sat herself on the home-installed seat behind me and wrapped her arms around my waist. She always did that when accompanying me on my bike. And perhaps one of her most favorite things to do on the bike, she allowed both of her legs to relax on the side of her seat. It was almost as if she believed keeping her arms around me would keep her safe enough. I suppose I didn't go fast to begin with anyway. I began pedaling, heading towards the shop that served one of our favorite ice creams. It was too bad that Twilight wasn't coming with us, but it's not like everything was ruined. I still loved being with my best and really only true friend.

"I don't understand you." I heard her say behind me, seeing the strands of her long and slightly wavy hair occasionally get in her face due to the wind. She tried to get them in control by pulling them towards the side and behind her hairclip. "I don't want to sound mean, but I honestly still don't see what you see in her. You sure you'll ever get to tell her one day?"

"I don't know." I answered briefly as I kept my eyes forward for any obstacles or traffic. I was always super cautious when she was around. "But to answer your question about what I see in her…I don't really know either." I lowered my eyes in thought, but soon paid back attention to our direction for safety measures. "This probably sounds cheesy…but…she always was different from everyone else. You know. Always in her own world I guess, and I could totally relate to that. I was the same exact way."

"You're always cheesy." She giggled. Even I knew that was more of a joke.

"Hm." I sent a smile back her way if she could see it. "You could have changed things a lot sooner if you acted earlier, Faith."

"Yeah…" She agreed, but then she remained silent for a moment as if she was thinking about something. "But sometimes…it's probably better to wait until the end to do things you wish you could do."

Remembering what she had told me about her old school, about the huge betrayal she had to live through, I could completely understand. Either way, she had me now. And there's no way I'd ever do anything like that to her. And I'm pretty sure she knows that too.

"Forget about it." I encouraged her in a light-hearted and supportive manner. "I'm buying you ice cream. Don't forget about that."

She giggled happily again. "You love spoiling me, don't you, Chase?"

I chuckled a little with her. "Yeah…I guess I do."


End file.
